Ten Minutes
by KodiRae
Summary: Ten minutes is considered a fast response time, if the police can get anywhere and assess the situation in ten minutes they're doing their job. A lot can happen in ten minutes, a lot of lives can be lost in ten minutes, a lot of lives can be changed in ten minutes.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own The Fosters**

**Welcome to Ten Minutes! This story is set after Vico is busted for selling fake ID's and hasn't beat up Brandon. There is no Brallie, and Jude and Callie were adopted without a hitch, hope you enjoy!**

**Callie**

Mornings in the Adams-Foster household are hectic and hectic is an understatement. Stef would wake up first and shower while the water was still hot, shortly followed by Lena. Brandon's alarm would start up in unison with Jude's at six o' clock a.m. sharp and my alarm would go off at six-fifteen and I would hit snooze, a few minutes later Lena would come in and turn on the lights.

"Good morning girls! Time for another wonderful Monday." She would say brightly, I sat up so she would see I was awake and Mariana rolled over with a grumble. I took a shower and brushed my teeth before walking back into our bedroom and seeing Mariana roll out of bed, she had hair that would make social networking history, and an expression that defined Mondays. We dressed silently and I put all my homework in my backpack before walking down the stairs and sitting at the table.

"Hi Callie, do you have all your homework?" Stef asked placing a glass of orange juice and a bagel in front of me. I nodded and took the cream cheese from in front of Jude. Stef sat at the head of the table sipping coffee and going through the mail, she opened a large manila folder and smiled. "Look what I have here." She beamed.

"Birth certificates?" Jude asked, jumping up from his seat and leaning over Stef's shoulder for a better look. "Callie come look, we're adopted!" Lena wrapped her arms around my shoulders and I stared at the official seal beside my name 'Callie Quinn Adams-Foster'

"Everything is here, social security cards, new ID for Callie, it's officially official." Stef beamed. "Let's go out to dinner tonight." She said as everyone but Jesus sat at the breakfast table. Brandon gave Jude a high-five and Mariana offered to paint his nails for dinner.

"We'll talk about it when we get home from school, the van leaves in twelve minutes. Mariana where's Jesus?" Lena asked placing the certificates back in the manila folder.

"Probably still asleep." Mariana huffed.

"I'm going to put these in the safe." Lena said heading up the stairs. "Jesus if you aren't downstairs in ten minutes you're running to school." She called. There was a sudden rush of footsteps and Jesus came tumbling down the stairs running his hand through his hair.

We piled into Lena's car and pulled out of the driveway watching as Stef locked up the house and made sure her holster was securely on her hips. The drive to school was always a short one and thankfully today it was quiet, we pulled into the 'Reserved for Lena Adams-Foster' parking space and the five of us tumbled out of the car.

"I'm staying late for a PTA meeting after school so you guys are going to have to walk home okay? Make sure you have someone to walk with, there are five of you, and no one walks alone."

"We know Momma." Jude said with a smile. I placed my hand on his shoulder and we walked into the school.

Brandon went off to play piano in the music room and I walked with Jude to his first class, but we still had ten minutes before the first bell so he and I drew silly pictures of each other. When the bell finally rang I picked up my notebook and ruffled his hair.

"I'll see you between lunch." I called as I walked to the sophomore wing of the school. Class went by as slowly as it every does on Mondays, and by the time lunch came around I was starving, but I waited by the seventh grade wing for Jude like I had promised. As he was walking to his next class and the older kids were walking to lunch we had five minutes for him to tell me how his day was going so far.

We talked for a minute and just as we were about to part ways a sharp bang rang throughout the hallway. It sounded like a firecracker, someone screamed and another bang echoed through the halls. People began running out of classrooms and into classrooms, I saw a kid with a black sweatshirt on waving something at people.

Bang.

It was a gun. I wrapped my arms around Jude to push him into a class room, there was a sudden sharp pain in my side and Jude and I were on the cold tile floor. It was suddenly difficult to breathe and my head ached, dark spots appeared in my vision, but I focused on Jude's face. He was terrified, I watched as the kid with the gun walked past us.

"Don't move." I whispered to Jude. We laid as still as we possibly could, I clenched my teeth and focused on breathing. The boy rounded the corner of at the end of the hall.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Screams, slamming doors.

Then the fire alarm started. Strobe lights flashing menacingly.

Stampedes of feet got nearer and Jude crawled out from under me.

"Callie, get up." He sobbed. I got to my hands and knees before slipping in the pool of my own blood. I had been shot, when had I been shot? My head swam nauseatingly. "Callie please." Jude cried pulling on my hand. Someone almost trampled on my arm and Jude threw his body over mine. I gasped as the pressure doubled on my back and I succumbed to the darkness that had threatened to take over.

**Jude**

We had to get out of here, we had to move. People were running in the halls, sprinting, pushing each other. Stepping over the senior crumpled against the lockers, and the sixth grader laying in front of the exit in a pool of blood.

And then it was silent. Every once and a while there would be a single person that would sprint out of the building, or a single door would slam. There were muffled sobs coming from a classroom nearby, I glanced around carefully to make sure the kid with the gun wasn't around and looked down at Callie.

She was pale, very pale. My heart stopped. "Callie." I whispered shaking her shoulder, her hair was matted with blood, there was blood everywhere. "Callie wake up." I swallowed my tears and tried to figure out if there was any way I could drag her outside.

Footsteps echoed throughout the eerily deserted hallways and I jumped back on top of Callie and laid as still as I could. The boy walked down the hall and stopped beside the senior that fell against the lockers. He sat beside him and stared at me, he looked me right in the eyes, he knew I was alive I could tell he knew.

The boy looked oddly familiar, but in that moment I was sure I was going to die. He gripped his gun tightly in his hand and kept his eyes locked with mine. I squeezed Callie's limp hand tightly and I swear she squeezed back. I shut my eyes.

Bang.

My eyes flew open and I flinched back, but nothing happened. I sat up and looked around to see the boy with the gun slumped against the lockers, blood soaking his black hoodie and his gun limply in his hand. His eyes were glassy. He was dead, and in that moment I recognized him.

It was Vico.

**Please review!**

**-Kodi**


	2. Chapter 2

**I hope you guys have enjoyed what you've read so far! Thanks for reading!**

**Jude**

I stared at Vico, my stomach rolled, I looked around for someone to help but the halls were empty. I leaned close to Callie, a line of blood ran from the corner of her mouth in a terrifying way. I wanted my moms, any one would know what to do more than I did. I heard Callie breathing, it was a petrifying sound, almost as if she was breathing underwater, but that was better than not breathing. It had to be.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to go get Momma." I sobbed. I stood up and slipped in the gummy blood on the floor, Callie's blood. I was covered in it from lying on top of her so she wouldn't get trampled. I scurried to my feet and out the door, tripping on the sixth grader who moaned loudly. I looked down and saw that he was smaller than me, I picked him up and draped his arm around my shoulders. He had been shot in the leg, I dragged him outside with me and was greeted by ten rifles pointed in my direction.

"Hands up kid!" An officer shouted from behind a gun. I waved both my hands while trying to keep the sixth grader up. Two officers rushed forward, one picked up the sixth grader and carried him away and the other grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me away from the door.

"Are you okay?" I nodded and opened my mouth to say something.

"My sister"- I started to say, but he ignored me and returned to stare at the door into the school. They entered the building in a single file line and I looked around at the crowd of students, most of them were crying. Some of them were hurt. I ran.

I ran to the parking lot and stared at Lena's car, no one was there. I ran back towards the school, maybe Mamma was still in her office. "Stop kid you can't go in there." A police officer stood in front of the door with a stern look on his face.

"But my mom"-

"You can't go in, I'm sorry." I spun around on my heel and started running through the crowd.

"Jude!" Lena's voice cut through the crowd shrill and sharp. I twisted around and was pulled into a tight hug. "Oh, oh, are you okay? You're hurt." She said lifting up my shirt and spinning me around. "Who's blood is this? There's so much, where are you hurt?" She asked picking me up and running towards an ambulance parked in the bus lane.

"No Momma, Callie is inside. Callie's hurt, we have to go get her." I screamed writhing so she had to let me down. Lena stared at me for a second before understanding what I said.

"Go stand by my car and don't move. Do you understand?" I nodded and she sprinted off to the line of ambulances. I went and sat in front of her van with my knees pressed against my chest and waited.

"Jude, where's everyone else?" Brandon asked. He was holding Mariana's hand and she was sobbing hysterically. "Are you hurt?" He demanded seeing the blood on my shirt. I just shook my head. "Have you seen Jesus?" I shook my head. "Momma?"

"She went to go find Callie." I mumbled, I couldn't tell them that I knew where Callie was, that I had just left her there without helping. We waited for a few minutes, Momma told us to wait.

"Brandon." A voice screamed. Stef jumped out of a moving police cruiser, and hugged Brandon and Mariana, Mike kissed the tops of their heads and Stef picked me up off the ground. She ignored my insisting that I was okay and pulled off my shirt anyway, looking me over. "Where's Momma?" She asked me pulling one of Mike's clean shirts over my head. "And Jesus and Callie?" She asked looking around frantically.

"Callie's hurt, I couldn't get her out, I wasn't strong enough." I muttered succumbing to sobs that had been hiding in my chest. Stef's face paled and she held me tightly. "The police wouldn't let me back in. I wanted to go back in and show them where Callie was but they wouldn't let me."

"It's not safe bud, but I'm sure someone has helped Callie by now." Mike rushed squeezing Stef's shoulder. Mariana had thrown her arms around Brandon's waist and was crying again.

"I'm going to look for Lena." Stef said with determination. She left us there with Mike who held onto Brandon and Mariana tightly, I refused to join them, I stared at Callie's blood on my hands, I couldn't get Vico's blank eyes out of my head.

Stef and Lena came sprinting over to the car, Lena had tears running silently down her face but Stef had my bloody shirt grasped in her hand and a cold look on her face. "I-I have to stay here and evacuate all the kids to the elementary school." Lena said clearing her throat. "I'll look for Jesus and call you when we find him okay? I may not be home until late. Mike can you"-

"Of course." Mike took the keys from Lena and Mariana looked around frantically.

"We can't leave without Jesus and Callie." She screamed, I chewed on my nails nervously.

"I'm going to the hospital with Callie, I'll call you when I know anything. They haven't finished clearing classrooms yet, Jesus is probably just barricaded in a classroom okay?" Stef kissed each one of us on the head and Lena followed her example before giving Mike a hug.

"Take care of them." She demanded. Brandon helped Mariana get in the car and panic set into my chest. Lena left into the crowd of crying parents and students and started corralling them onto school busses.

"I'm staying with Mom. I have to see Callie." I demanded.

"No get in the car." Stef barked, it was a harshness that I wasn't accustomed to in the Adams-Foster home, but I stared down Stef. Tears brimmed her eyes and she squeezed my hands. "I'm sorry I shouted, but I need to know you're still safe while I check on your sister. I'll take good care of her, I promise." I pushed her hands away and got in the car slamming the door. "I love you all." She said wiping her eyes and stepping back onto the curb as Mike drove us away from the school. She turned and ran back to the entrance of the school.

We pulled into our driveway and I dashed inside the house, I jumped in the shower and scrubbed Callie's blood off my hands and out of my hair. I threw away all my clothes and even my sneakers, I threw Mike's shirt at him and climbed in Callie's bed. I laid there and stared at the wall, I didn't dare move, not even when the phone rang. Mariana came in and tried to talk to me a few times and Brandon brought me food, but I refused to move or eat, or cry. Not until I knew what had happened to Callie.

**Callie**

I woke up with blood in my mouth, the floor beneath me was cold and wet, I tried to look up but everything spun around me. I wasn't sure where I was, lockers were beside me and blood a lot of blood, I tried to drag myself forward, but I couldn't move my right arm. My body weighed a ton.

"Building is clear, let's get them out of here." A voice shouted and a stampede of heavy boots came my way. "He's dead." Someone said grimly. "Here, get paramedics in here now." Someone dropped on their knees beside me.

"Can you hear me?" They asked softly touching my shoulder. I nodded, and instantly regretted it. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Callie F-Fos" I heard myself mumble. My tongue felt huge in my mouth and my oxygen supply depleted faster than I could restore it.

"Foster?" I couldn't reply, I was overcome by a fit of coughs that spattered more blood on the ground. "Hurry with that stretcher, this is one of Foster's kids." They shouted. More feet, more hands, they laid me face down on a plastic board and my cries echoed throughout the hall as I moved. There were murmured apologies, but they cared more about speed and less about my comfort.

They carried me out the front door and right into the blinding light of outside. The world was swirls and blotches of disgustingly splashed together colors, I wanted to close my eyes but I was also terrified what would happen if I did. "Callie!" Someone shouted. The voice was lost in a sea of screams, sobs surrounded me and my name was cropping up all around me.

"Move, move, we need to get to the ambulance." Someone near me ordered, the people holding me began jogging and I gripped the edge of the stretcher tightly focusing on shallow breaths.

"Callie I'm here. I'm right here." Stef, that was Stef's voice. I wished I could say something in return but I was suddenly in a bright, cold van, the doors shut tight and a strap secured my body to the stretcher.

"Mom?" I whispered hoarsely.

"Yes Callie, I'm right here." Stef said quickly. I smiled, tears burnt my eyes, but I smiled. "Don't cry baby, don't cry." My shirt and bra were cut off without warning and the van began to move. I winced with every turn but tried not to cry.

"Here put pressure on the head wound." Someone behind me said. Gauze was wrapped tightly around my head and someone pressed on my side, hard. I screamed, my scream turned into a watery cough and Stef crouched in front of me.

"Squeeze my hand baby, it'll be okay." She said calmly. Squeeze her hand? I saw that my right hand was wrapped in both of hers. I tried to move my fingers, but they didn't move. I couldn't even feel her holding my hand.

"Can't." I huffed.

"It's okay." Stef replied quickly, but cast an anxious glance at whoever was behind me. My eyes fell closed, they weighed tons, there was nothing I could do about it. "Callie, stay with me baby, wake up." Stef rushed.

"Hurts." I heard myself say. That was the last thing I wanted to tell my mom, but I couldn't control what came out of my mouth. I forced my eyes open and they rolled around uncontrollably.

"I know. We're almost at the hospital and they're going to fix you up." My chest felt as though an elephant was standing just on my right side, my ribs had collapsed under the pressure, and it kept getting worse and worse. "Something's happened." Stef panicked. "It's okay Callie, relax." Stef trembled, her eyes watered, she was scared.

I struggled to take in air, I thought it had been hard before, but now I was breathing underwater. "Her lung just collapsed, Callie this is going to hurt." The paramedic said quickly. A cold swab was wiped along my collar bone and a large needle flashed in front of my eyes. Stef stroked my cheek and forced a tight smile across her face.

"Look at me baby." I ground my teeth together as the paramedic probed my collar bone with his fingers, there was a sharp pain and there was a tube sticking out of my chest. I whimpered and laid as still as I could as an oxygen mask was placed over my face and an IV placed in my left arm. "You okay?" She asked softly continuing to hold on to my right hand even though I couldn't feel it.

"Didn't hurt- like- getting shot." I gasped smiling at the end.

"Not funny." Stef answered. "Don't talk." She kissed the top of my head.

"Jude?" I suddenly remembered, I don't know why but some part of me thought that I could sit up, I was strapped to the stretcher so I didn't get far, but it hurt all the same and gloved hands held me down.

"He's okay, he's fine, he's at home with your siblings. Don't talk anymore or you're grounded." Stef forced, she really wasn't in a joking mood, but at least she tried.

"Mrs. Foster we're at the emergency room, we need you to get out first and stand out of the way." Stef nodded, kissed me again, and jumped out of the van. I was pulled out and even more people were there waiting for me.

"Two entrance wounds, no exit wounds, a collapsed lung, traumatic brain injury, she's been conscious for most of the ride, lost a lot of blood." Someone listed off. I was wheeled into the hospital at an amazing rate that made my head spin, I closed my eyes so I wouldn't vomit.

"O.R. 3 is prepped and ready for her." I reached out with my left hand and grabbed the person closest to me.

"Callie I'm right here. I'll be here when you wake up, okay?" Stef called.

"Mom?" I huffed, it caused a searing pain across my right side. I opened my eyes for a brief moment and saw her jogging beside the crowd of nurses around me. We stopped in front of a door and Stef got closer.

"I can't go in there with you, but I'll wait right over there. I love you so much, Momma and I love you so much. I'll see you when you wake up Callie-Bear." Stef kissed my forehead and I was pushed into the cold operating room.

"One, two, three." I was lifted off the stretcher and placed on a cold table, I didn't have the energy to scream anymore, a tube was fed down my throat and a foggy darkness took over.

**Jude**

Callie had lunch at twelve thirty, she had been shot at around twelve thirty, I stared at her alarm clock and was amazed that it already said four o' clock. But then my heart sank, if it was already four o' clock what was happening back at the school that moms hadn't come home yet? I pulled myself out of Callie's bed and peeked into my room, Mariana was sound asleep in Jesus' bed and Brandon's bedroom door was closed, but you could hear the furious pounding of his keyboard.

I shuffled downstairs and found Mike asleep in front of the television, I turned to the screen and watched, for the first time, the chaos we had been in the middle of. Mike had the volume down so low I could hardly hear it, so I stepped closer.

"We have four confirmed deaths and six shooting related injuries so far, there have been no suspects named and none of the victim's names have been released either. I'm here at the gym of Carter Elementary where we are asking all students of Anchor Beach Charter to come check in so that we know you are okay, parents are still looking for some of the kids listed missing and we believe in the chaos a lot of students may have run and are now hiding, this is the last bus of evacuated students and we should have more information at the press conference at 5pm." I chewed on my lip and stared as pictures of running kids flashed on the screen, one kid was obviously hurt, others were just running.

"Jude?" Mike jumped up and turned off the television. "How're you feeling buddy?"

"I know who did it." I heard myself say.

"Okay, do you want to talk about it?"

"Vico shot Callie, Vico shot Callie, then he came back to kill me." I blurted. "Vico killed himself instead, I saw him." Mike gestured for me to come sit beside him and we sat there in silence.

"I know Stef and Lena are your moms, but if you ever need to talk about anything I'm here. What happened today was really scary, but you have a great family here and it's going to work out." Mike said slowly piecing everything together word by word.

"Can I call Stef?" I asked finally. Mike handed me the phone and I leaned into his shoulder as it rang over and over and over.

"Lena?" She asked desperately.

"No Mommy it's Jude." I said quickly, Mike wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"Oh, hey baby how're you doing?" She responded automatically.

"Is Callie alright?" There was silence, then what I assume was a muffled sob.

"I don't know yet, she's still in surgery. But she asked about you in the ambulance, she was awake then and that's a good sign." Stef said brightly. "Have you heard from Momma yet?"

"No, not yet. Don't watch the news Mom, it'll only make you sad." Stef laughed a little.

"Okay. I'm going to hang up and wait for that call from Momma, I'll call you if they say anything about Callie. I love you Jude." I mumbled an 'I love you too' and put the phone down.

"Can I watch the TV?" Mike stared at the blank screen and seemed torn.

"Cartoons, no news." He said with finality, I nodded, he turned the TV back on and changed the channel as fast as he could before switching to cartoons. I watched the show for a few minutes and Mariana joined me wrapped in a blanket, her face red and blotchy. I didn't say anything to her, but a few minutes later Brandon came downstairs and sat between us pulling us both close. "I'm going to make dinner." Mike said to himself and walked into the kitchen. We watched cartoons for an hour before the phone rang, we all jumped, but Brandon scrambled to answer it.

"Hello?" His face brightened.

"When will you be home?" His knee began to bounce and he looked at his watch. "Any news on Callie?" I sat up straight, but Brandon didn't tell me anything. "We love you too, see you soon."

"What? Who was that?" Mariana asked.

"Momma, they found Jesus he's fine, they're wrapping up at the school and they'll be home in an hour." Mariana hugged Brandon and then tried to hug me.

"What about Callie?" I asked pushing her away.

"Momma's going to tell us everything when she gets home. Mariana's face paled, we sat silently on the couch once more waiting for Lena to come home. When the front door finally opened we sprinted to it, Mariana flung herself at Jesus and started crying all over again, and even though Jesus would never admit it he was crying too.

Lena hugged each one of us tightly and thanked Mike over and over before rushing upstairs to change and pack bags for Stef and herself for the hospital. "I'm coming too." I said quickly.

"No, Jude we need you to stay here. There are a lot of people in the hospital right now from the accident." I stomped back down stairs and watched as Jesus started to tell some heroic story about barricading twelve kids in the library, my stomach bubbled and my blood boiled. In two swift steps I shoved Jesus square in the chest as hard as I could, it knocked him off balance, but before I could swing or do anything else Mike grabbed me by the arms.

"Callie is going to die, all of you are happy and Callie is going to die." I screamed. I thrashed against Mike's tight hold and Lena charged down the stairs.

"What are you talking about?" Jesus asked.

"Everyone sit in the living-room, now." Lena demanded. Mike sat between me and everyone else as I wiped tears away from my face furiously, how could they all be so happy?

"You said Callie was with Mom." Jesus said slowly.

"Stef is in the hospital with Callie, she was shot." Lena explained carefully.

"Like when mom was shot though? Like she'll be okay? Nothing serious?" Mariana asked, Jesus and Brandon seemed to be thinking the same thing. They hadn't seen Callie the way I had seen her.

"No, Callie was hit twice. One hit her lung the other hit her head, Callie is in what they call 'critical condition' she's still in surgery and Stef and I need to be there for her, okay?"

"I need to go too." I said stomping my foot.

"Only parents in the hospital right now. I know you want Callie to be okay, but as soon as she can have visitors you guys can come to the hospital." Lena didn't understand, it was my fault, I needed to tell Callie I was sorry.

"Is she going to be okay?" Mariana asked again, more tears, how could she even have more tears?

"I don't know." Lena answered honestly. That shut everybody up, it suddenly seemed too real. Just this morning Callie and I received new names and now she was on the verge of leaving this family. "I have to go though. I love you all." She kissed each one of us and hurried out the door.

No one talked for the rest of the night and we pretended to eat dinner just to make Mike feel better, but after that we just went to our bedrooms and stared at each other. Mariana refused to step foot into her bedroom and stayed close to Jesus as if he were about to disappear.

**Thank you guys so much for all of the awesome reviews! Tell me what you think about adding a Stef POV…..**

**Happy Holidays! **

**-Kodi**


	3. Chapter 3

**I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!**

**Stef**

I double checked to make sure the front door was locked and turned to wave as Lena pulled out of the driveway with the kids. I drove to Mike's to pick him up on the way to the station in an attempt to pinch pennies and carpool for the environment and my sanity, Mike handed me a cup of coffee as he sat in the passenger's seat.

"So what's on our schedule for today?" He asked with a bright smile. I rolled my eyes and tried not to show how annoyed I was, Mike was one of the only morning people I knew and of course he was my partner.

"We have a mountain of paperwork to do, just like every Monday." I sighed and pulled into the station. It was mind-numbing and always caused me to kick myself and my ability to procrastinate. Mike sat in his desk and typed away with a cheery disposition that only made me want to drink gallons of coffee.

Every Monday is like the one before it, and everyone knows that the next Monday will be just like the one you're having now, and all I could think about to help this Monday pass faster was dinner with the family tonight.

"We just got a report of a school shooting, single gun man, suit-up and let's go." Captain Roberts shouted throughout the station, the movement happened immediately, we had trained for this scenario multiple times, but we had all prayed it would never happen. Now that it had it was all about speed, the riot team geared up and climbed into the armored vehicles. I pulled on my bullet proof vest and started to leave the station with Mike at a trot to get to our cruiser when Captain Robert's stepped in front of us. "In my office, now." We followed her without question, this was a time to just follow orders and ask questions later.

"What can we do to help?" Mike asked taking a seat across from her desk, I sat beside him and struggled to keep my knee from bouncing so she wouldn't see how nervous I was.

"I need you to turn in your guns, and just listen to me for ten minutes." My heart dropped. Mike placed his gun on her desk without question and my hands began to shake.

"What's this about?" I heard myself ask.

"Your gun Foster, then we can talk." I placed my gun on her desk and my eyes began to water. "You're both on paid leave as long as you need, the school shooting is at Anchor Beach." I didn't hear anything else, but her lips continued to move. Lena, Brandon, Callie, Jesus, Mariana, Jude. Over and over. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, but there were no texts or missed phone calls and it just made my heart beat even harder.

"I need to go." I shouted jumping up out of my seat.

"Call if you need anything." Captain Roberts said sympathetically. I had to know my family was okay.

For the first time Mike and I were silent in the car, he didn't say anything but continued to take slow steady breaths when we got close to Anchor Beach we saw kids running in every direction, vomit rose in my throat when I saw a kid with a bloody cut across his forehead. "Brandon is probably fine, all the kids are probably fine. Lena could have taken them home already." Mike said to himself, I ignored him and searched the crowd for familiar faces.

"Go to the front parking lot, Lena has a parking spot." I forced through ground teeth. Mike nodded and drove around, I saw Lena's car. They were all still here, tears leaked from my eyes, what if the worst has happened?

Mike stopped the car, but I was already outside running towards Lena's car when I saw my children. My heart broke, it hurt more than I ever imagined it would. I held Brandon and Mariana, Jude was sitting on the curb, he was hurt. I picked him up and looked him over, he had to have been shot there was so much blood, panic picked up in my chest again. I felt as though I was suffocating, I pulled his shirt off and looked him over. I couldn't understand what I was seeing, there was blood he had to be hurt, but there was nothing. Mike handed me a clean shirt and I pulled it over Jude's head.

"Callie's hurt, I couldn't get her out, I wasn't strong enough." Jude sobbed, I couldn't understand what was happening to me right now. I was terrified I needed to get my family together and protect them, it's what I was hardwired to do and right now I was failing.

"I'm going to look for Lena." I forced the fear down, I needed to look after them. I sprinted into the crowd of students looking around at each of their faces for Callie or Jesus, Lena would be somewhere she was needed. Callie was hurt, I needed to find Callie. I spun around in circles and tried to stay calm when I found nothing. The row of ambulances caught my attention, Lena would want to know which students were in the hospital.

I broke through the congregation of students and saw Lena's distinctive curls instantly. I threw my arms around her and released a sob into her shoulder, Lena's arms bound around me and I wished time would stop around us, I needed her more than anything right now. "Callie is still inside." She said letting go quickly. I dried my eyes and pulled myself together. "I haven't seen Jesus, no one has." I nodded and started scanning the crowd again. "I have to take all the students to the elementary school and release them individually to their parents."

"Mike is here, he can take the kids home. I'll stay with Callie, it'll be okay." My voice sounded hollow, I couldn't lie to Lena and she knew this. "Let's go tell the kids, they're pretty upset." Lena nodded and gripped my hand tightly as we fought our way through the crowd to get back to the mini-van.

They looked like zombies and climbed into the van to go home with Mike, but Jude stood on the curb defiantly. "I'm staying with Mom. I have to see Callie." He screamed.

"No, get in the car." I pleaded, it came out as if I were ordering troops into battle, but Jude took it in stride. My eyes burned with tears, I couldn't imagine what they were going through, it was hell for me. "I'm sorry I shouted, but I need to know you're still safe while I check on your sister. I'll take good care of her, I promise." I squeezed his hands tightly and kissed the top of his head. "I love you all."

I turned and ran back into the crowd and ended up at the entrance to the school. Officer Montez stood at the door, rifle in hand and a steel look on his face. "Have they brought any victims out yet?" I asked leaning close so none of the students beside him could hear.

"No, only the one's that walked out by themselves are out." His radio crackled and he motioned for me to step back. I was bombarded by students asking me questions, asking where they could find their parents, if they could call anyone. I tried to calm most of them down, but I was too worried about my kids that weren't safe at home. Jesus could be anywhere, no one had seen him. Callie was hurt, but Jude had talked to her so she could be alright, but she was still hurt.

The doors to the school burst open and paramedics rushed out with a girl on a stretcher. I shoved kids out of my way, I knew it was Callie. I don't remember her being that pale, but that mess of brown hair could only belong to her. When I finally made it to them I still wasn't ready for what I saw, I thought Jude had a lot of blood on his shirt, but there was easily twice as much on Callie. Her right arm hung off the board they were carrying her on, her left hand gripped the edge tightly, they were moving through the crowd quickly making great time to the ambulance.

I pushed a few kids out of the way and ended up right beside them. I grabbed the hand dangling off the board and held it tightly, she didn't move. "Callie I'm here. I'm right here." Her eyes opened slowly, her whites of her right eye were red, but she stared at me. "I'm her mother I need to go with her." I said to the paramedic closest to me, he nodded and pulled open the door of the ambulance, they pushed Callie inside and climbed in after her making me go last.

They strapped her down tight and the ambulance began to move. I picked her hand back up and held it between both of mine as they took vitals, flashed a light in her eyes, and discussed numbers in hushed tones. I tried not to listen to them and just focus on Callie.

"Mom?" She breathed, her eyes struggled to focus on me and I leaned closer.

"I'm here." I smiled, I felt like crying, but I smiled. Tears streamed out of Callie's eyes, but she smiled back. She was conscious, she was fully conscious and responsive, damn she had to be in so much pain. The van made a sharp turn, Callie flinched and her face paled even further. "Don't cry baby, don't cry." Maybe I was talking to myself, maybe I was talking to Callie.

She closed her eyes slowly and continued her slow watery breathing as they cut off her shirt and bra. The van turned again and I had to look away as Callie winced. "Two entrance wounds, head and back, punctured lung." All these words floated around the ambulance and made my head spin. I felt like throwing up, but it was probably nothing like Callie felt so I dismissed the feelings the best I could.

They placed piece after piece of gauze on the back of her head before wrapping it tightly in gauze and then they pressed another handful of gauze against her back. A heart wrenching scream rang through the cold van, I fought the overwhelming desire to push everyone away from my daughter and just hold her. I got as close as I could, but my heart plummeted as the scream turned into a terrifying cough.

"I'm here Cal, I'm right here, just squeeze my hand baby, it's going to be okay." She opened her eyes again, it took them even longer to focus and then she looked down at our hands together. Her hand continued to rest limply in mine.

"Can't." She breathed, panic filled her face and she looked from her hand back to me over and over until I understood. She couldn't move her fingers.

"It's okay." I looked at the paramedic across from me, it was anything but okay. Callie's eyes suddenly rolled back and even though I knew she couldn't do anything I squeezed her hand even harder. "Callie stay with me. I need you to wake up." I tried not to shout, but I know everyone could hear my anxieties.

"Hurts." Callie said softly, I felt terrible for waking her up. It would probably stop hurting all together if I let her sleep, but that just seemed wrong. I needed to know she was okay until we got to the hospital. She opened her eyes and this time they didn't focus at all, she looked around every once in a while they would land on me.

"We're almost there, they're going to fix you up and then we'll be back home." Callie suddenly stopped breathing, her lips turned a shocking shade of blue, her eyes widened and for the first time Callie actually looked terrified. "Something's wrong." I said turning to the paramedic next to me, but they were already rushing around. "It's going to be okay Callie, relax." I wiped my eyes furiously and watched as drawers were opened and slammed closed as they looked for the right equipment.

Her lung collapsed, they pulled out a large needle that made me nervous. I tried to stay strong for Callie, anything for Callie. "Look at me baby." I said quickly, Callie's eyes flashed to me as the paramedic forced the needle passed her chest and into her lung. Her teeth clenched together, but she relaxed moments later. "You okay?"

"Didn't hurt- like- getting shot." She said in between gasps of air. It was awful sounding, she needed the air more than she needed to talk and it made me anxious it would cause her lung to collapse again.

"Not funny." I said quickly. "Don't talk." The paramedics had stepped back, there wasn't much more they could do until we actually got to the hospital unless something went wrong. I leaned in and kissed the top of her head.

"Jude?" She suddenly called out and lifted her head off the stretcher. She couldn't go anywhere but everyone reached forward and held her down just in case. Myself included.

"He's okay, he's at home with everyone else. Don't talk anymore or you're grounded." I grumbled pulling a tight smile across my face. Did I seriously just threaten to ground my daughter that may not make it through surgery, you can't think like that.

"Mrs. Foster the doors are going to open and you'll have to get out first." Someone said beside me. I carefully placed Callie's right arm on the stretcher and kissed her again. "Mrs. Foster we're at the emergency room, we need you to get out first and stand out of the way." I jumped out of the way without looking back and they pushed Callie into the building with rehearsed perfection. I sprinted beside them and tried to ignore the whimpers Callie made with every bump and turn.

"Callie I'll be here when you wake up, okay?" I heard Callie call out for me so I stepped closer. "I can't go in there with you, but I'll be right over there. I love you so much, Momma and I love you so much. I'll see you when you wake up Callie-Bear." I kissed her again and watched as they entered the operating room.

I was left standing there holding Jude's bloody shirt in the middle of the hectic hospital. A kid that had been shot in the leg sobbed and screamed for his mother as nurses tried to help him. Another child was pushed passed me into the operating room, but I could tell from the looks on the nurses faces that they didn't think he would make it. Did the nurses pushing Callie look that way? I couldn't remember.

"Ma'am can I help you?" A nurse asked beside me.

"Oh, I just need to wait. I'm sorry, where's the waiting room for the O.R.?"

"Right this way." She smiled. I followed her to a row of chairs at the end of the hallway. I took a seat and knew that this was just going to be a long day, I glanced at the television screen and stared for almost thirty minutes before realizing that I was watching news coverage of the shooting.

"Family for Callie Foster?" I jumped up and looked around. "Are you her mother?" I nodded. "I just have some paperwork for you to fill out." I felt my shoulders drop, but tried not to look disappointed. Maybe no news was good news right now. I held onto the clip-board and knew that there were over twenty pages of information that I was supposed to read and sign, at least it would distract me for a few minutes. I read everything slowly hoping it would absorb time and Callie would be done when I signed my last name on the last page, but nothing changed. I handed the woman at the desk the clip-board, sat back in my chair, and waited some more. I wanted to demand to know what was happening with Callie, I wanted to call Lena and know what was happening at the school and I wanted to hug all my kids and hold them for days.

My phone rang and I jumped at the jarring noise. I kept my eyes averted from the other people waiting, but I knew they were staring. I saw that it was the house calling and my heart began to pound again. "Lena?" Tears burnt my eyes and I looked around for a private place to talk, but I didn't want to leave and not know what was going on with Callie.

"No Mommy it's Jude." A soft voice said. I cleared my throat and forced a smile on my face.

"Oh, hey baby how're you doing?"

"Is Callie alright?" He asked, the concern he had was heart wrenching. I opened my mouth to respond and a little sob escaped, I didn't want Jude to worry about this the way Lena and I had to.

"I don't know yet, she's still in surgery. But she asked about you in the ambulance, she was awake then and that's a good sign." I said trying to turn him around. "Have you heard from Momma yet?" When did I start chewing my nails again?

"No, not yet. Don't watch the news Mom, it'll only make you sad." Jude said in a 'matter of fact' manner. I couldn't help it and laughed a little as I stared up at the news playing on three different television screens.

"Okay. I'm going to hang up and wait for that call from Momma, I'll call you if they say anything about Callie. I love you Jude."

"I love you too." He whispered, and I instantly regretted hanging up with the only person that had offered to keep me company.

Nothing new played on the news and I watched the same report about the shooting for an hour. They had no names, the shooter was believed to be dead, all students were to report to the elementary school. The same message played again and again with the hope everything would be cleared up at the press conference at five p.m.

"Foster?" I jumped up and looked around for whoever had said my name. It was a nurse and she motioned for me to follow her through a set of doors. This was it, everything was over, Callie was okay and they were going to even let her come home tonight. "Wait here and we'll have a doctor come talk to you soon." I wanted to call Lena and tell her to get here right away, she needed to be here for this, but she needed to stay at the school.

After almost another hour of waiting a doctor came in looking exhausted. "You're Callie's mother?" I nodded and reached out to shake his hand. "I'm Dr. Clemson, pleasure, should we wait on Callie's father?"

"You can call me Stef, we don't need to wait, my partner is assistant principle at the school so she won't be here for a few more hours." He nodded grimly and sat in a chair across from me, he opened a file and seemed to be reading it thoroughly for the first time.

"Well we have good news and bad news." He said with a sigh. "Callie had two entrance wounds and the one to her back that punctured her lung was relatively simple to repair. The damage was significant and recovery won't be easy, but if it had been the only injury Callie would be out of surgery by now. The problem we have encountered is the head wound, when Callie came in we assumed it was a clean shot with minimal damage but after a CAT scan we discovered some complications." He cleared his throat and wiped his forehead. I stared at him hoping the next words out of his mouth weren't as bad as they could be. "We think the bullet hit something before it hit Callie, the bullet itself was easy enough to remove, but there are fragments everywhere."

"Can you remove them?" I blurted out, he didn't answer right away and my stomach dropped to the floor. "Just, just tell me the truth." I choked squeezing my phone. He lifted up a large piece of film and stuck it to the wall turning on a light.

"This is the CAT scan we took. Here we see Callie's brain and the bright spots are fragments, we've counted seven." I stood up and stared at the spots, the room began to spin and vomit rose up in my throat, I stumbled back to my seat and covered my face with my hands. Blood pumped in my ears and I was almost positive I was about to faint. "Mrs. Foster do you need some water?" Doctor Clemson's voice swam into my head. Water appeared beside me and he waited patiently for me to pull myself together.

"I'm sorry, I-I don't know"-

"No don't worry about it, it's a lot to understand." I nodded and looked back at those white spots in my daughter's brain. "Do you want me to continue or do you need some time?"

"Please keep going." I nodded my hands shook as I held the bottle of water, if I brought it up to my lips I would spill it all over myself.

"If you need me to stop just let me know." I nodded. "This fragment here probably caused the bleeding you could see in her eye. We removed it and the repair we did looks promising. The paralysis in her arm is probably caused by the fragment here." He pointed to another menacing white spot. "We aren't sure if we should remove it, it may cause more damage and result in permanent paralysis. We have another piece here, we removed it no problem and the same with these two pieces here."

"So we don't have to worry about those, right?" I asked letting a glimmer of hope resurface.

"Brain injuries are difficult, we won't know until Callie wakes up, but we don't have to worry about those three fragments causing more damage than they already have." Alright, okay. We could work with this one, Lena would know what to do. I felt myself nodding but I knew this problem had just become bigger than me. "These last two fragments, here and here, these are the ones we are worried about. This fragment is in an area called the cerebellum, and this fragment is in the temporal lobe. The damage to those areas is concerning and so we are concentrating on repairing that damage and we will not attempt to retrieve those fragments."

"Is Callie going to be okay?" I whispered, drying tears from my eyes and staring at those last two pieces of bullet threatening my family.

"We don't know, she's been very touch and go, it's going to be a few more hours before we're even close to done, but I'll be sure to come out and give you another update." I nodded and watched as he took down the film and closed Callie's file. "Stay in here as long as you need to."

"Thank you." He walked out of the room and I was left sitting there with a full bottle of water, my cell phone, and Jude's shirt. Why did I still have this shirt? I had to call Lena. I stared at my phone, how was I going to tell her what I just learned? Don't think about it, she's Callie's mom too I have to tell her. I held the ringing phone up to my ear and focused on breathing, I just needed to breathe.

"Stef?" She was worried, she was terrified. "I have Jesus, he's fine." A weight I didn't know was there was lifted off my chest.

"Thank God." I breathed. "Are you at home?"

"No, we have about twenty students still waiting on their parents, probably another hour." There was silence. "How's our girl?"

"She's still with us." I answered slowly. Lena didn't say anything. "I talked to one of her surgeons."

"Stef just tell me." I struggled to hold back tears.

"She was shot twice, once in the back, it punctured her lung and in the head." Nothing. "The bullet in her head was a ricochet, so there are fragments, they removed four of them, they think it would cause more damage to remove the remaining three." Lena said nothing. "Please come, I can't do this alone." I started crying, I couldn't do anything about it, I cried like I had never cried before.

"Two hours Stefanie, I'll be there in two hours, do you need anything from home?" Lena finally said.

"I need to change out of this damn uniform." I grumbled.

"Clothes for you and Callie, something to eat I'm sure." I took off my uniform top and struggled to stop the tears. "I love you, everyone here is safe, now we just have to worry about Callie and I'll be there soon, okay?"

"I love you too." I waited for her to hang up first and even after the line went dead I held the phone to my ear, when I finally pulled it away the picture from our wedding stared me in the face. Callie stood there smiling brightly, we couldn't lose her, not when she had just joined the family. I pulled myself together and walked back out to the waiting room, I bought myself a coffee and saw that my seat was still empty. I couldn't look at the other parents in the waiting room and they carefully avoided my eye contact too.

I stared at the news and held onto my coffee until it was stone cold. Captain Roberts suddenly appeared in front of the completely evacuated Anchor Beach, I sat up a little straighter and the waiting room got even quieter. "What happened today was a tragedy and my thoughts and prayers are with all those affected both directly and indirectly with this incident. At twelve-thirty today a recently expelled student by the name of Vico Cerar entered school property and began shooting with a firearm he obtained illegally. He had no specific targets and appears to have fired at random, we responded to the situation in ten minutes, but in that time Mister Cerar injured six students and killed four people including himself. The deceased include a math teacher Bridget Dunn 33, senior Michael Griffin, sophomore Emma Barnes, and junior Vico Cerar. Can we please have a moment of silence?" Captain Roberts dropped her head down and I was shocked.

Ms. Dunn had been Mariana's math teacher when she was in sixth grade, Emma, not Emma. Jesus was going to be distraught, how could Vico have done this? Why did Vico do this? The moment of silence ended and the cameras began clicking and flashing in the Capitan's direction. "Thank you, of the six injured two are in critical condition. Freshman Ryan Daniels and Junior C"- Captain Roberts took a deep breath and looked out at the crowd. "My apologies. Junior Callie Adams-Foster. Please join me in another moment of silence." I stood up and walked away leaving my cold coffee beside my chair, I couldn't stay and listen to anymore names even if the remaining ones were only of those doing better than Callie.

I ended up outside in a small garden, it was empty and I walked along the trail counting each tile in the sidewalk, and then each decorative flower in each tile, anything to distract me from the hours of waiting I still had to do. Who was going to tell Jesus that Emma was dead? He probably already knew, another student probably already told him, we had to worry about Callie right now. As long as the other kids were safe at home we were going to make it through today. The Adams-Foster clan just had to make it through today.

My phone vibrated in my hand and I fumbled to answer it. "Stef I'm here, I just parked the car." Lena said breathlessly. She was jogging, I could hear her voice echoing through the parking garage.

"Come through the emergency room entrance, I'll meet you there." I said quickly, glad I would have something to do. I walked back through the building and met up with Lena in the front of the building, she handed me clothes and I quickly changed in the bathroom, it gave me a great excuse to splash water onto my face and enjoy a few moments alone before coming out and facing Lena.

"Why do you have that?"

"What?" She took Jude's shirt from my hand and reached over to throw it away.

"No Lena, don't." I rushed, talking quietly so no one would look over at us.

"It's ruined Stef, I can't look at this."

"I can't lose Callie. I feel like I'm losing her, I can't do anything to keep her here." I started crying again and this time I had Lena to hold me. She cried too, I had made her cry, but somehow I was feeling better. Someone understood, someone else cared for Callie as much as I did and someone else was completely terrified about what might happen.

"Callie isn't this shirt, okay?" Lena asked wiping her eyes. I nodded and watched as Jude's shirt ended up in a trashcan with empty coffee cups and paper towels. "Let's go wait." At a time like this Lena and I didn't care what people might say or do if they saw us holding hands, I wrapped my fingers in hers and we walked to the waiting room near the operating rooms. Even though we sat there silently it was immensely better than when I was sitting there alone. Every time a nurse walked out the door Lena squeezed my hand, but it took hours for one to come out and say Callie's name. We followed her back into the little conference room and Dr. Clemson was there waiting for us.

"You must be Callie's mother, it's a pleasure to meet you, I wish it was under better circumstances." He offered his hand out to Lena and she shoot it firmly.

"Please call me Lena, thank you for taking care of our daughter." I looked to Dr. Clemson praying that news this time around would be better, or the same, just not worse.

"Callie is a fighter." We knew that already, we had known that since the first day she stepped foot in our home. I felt myself smile, that's my girl. "We actually managed to remove the fragment we believe caused the paralysis, we don't know if this will fix the paralysis, but they're wrapping up now. In another hour Callie will be in the ICU and you can see her, she's going to be on a ventilator for a few days and in a medically induced coma for at least twenty-four hours."

"Why? Shouldn't we let her wake up so we know how much brain damage we're working with?" I couldn't do much more waiting. I had never been a patient person and this was just dreadful, I had spent hours in a chair and I was about to spend even more in another chair in a different room.

"The last thing we want is to give her brain something else to focus on other than healing." I nodded and tried to focus on all the questions Lena was asking.

"What kind of recovery process are we looking at?"

"A lot of occupational and physical therapy, depending on the extent of the brain damage speech therapy and respiratory therapy. It's going to be a very long road I'm not going to try and sugar coat it for you, Callie might not be home for months." He waited for any more questions we could think of, but Lena just looked speechless. "Just wait in here while they finish up, I'll have a nurse come and get you and take you to the ICU." Lena and I sat in the room alone, I didn't know what to say to her, today was one of those days that we would always remember and in a few hours we were going to figure out if our family was going to change forever.

We sat in that room for an hour in silence, a nurse came in and led us down hallway after hallway. It was dark outside, I have no idea what time the sun went down. "We should call the kids and make sure they're okay, have you checked in with any of them?" I asked as we entered the ICU, I refused to look at anyone in there, I just wanted to see Callie.

"We should call them, should we tell them about Callie. We should see Callie first, but she's not even awake, maybe we should call the kids first." Lena muttered quickly. "You go see Callie and I'll call the kids, no you call the kids and I'll see Callie. Maybe we should have Mike bring the kids here, they might want to see Callie. Should we let them see Callie?" She glanced at me, but didn't wait for me to answer. "We should call our parents, they should be here. We haven't talked to our parents, they're probably worried, they're going to be upset."

"Hey, hey, Lena take a minute and breathe." The nurse stood a good ten feet away and waited for us. "I know, I know it's scary. I'm fucking terrified, but we have to see Callie, after we see Callie we'll call the kids. We'll let them come visit when Callie wakes up, okay?" Lena stared through me, I held her hands in mine and her lip began to tremble. I wrapped my arms around her and she rested her forehead on my shoulder, she breathed slowly before taking a step back.

"Okay, okay." She mumbled. She dried her eyes, rolled her shoulders back, and pulled on an expression that screamed 'school principle'. We followed the nurse to a room encased in glass walls, I could easily look in and see, but I refused to look. The nurse opened the door and I followed Lena inside, Lena rushed over to Callie's side and I walked slowly trying to look everywhere but at Callie. In the ambulance there hand been more blood than anything else, what would Callie look like? There was an IV drip with fluids and blood beside her bed, a heart monitor, a respirator, I followed the tubes from the respirator to Callie. Her head was wrapped tightly and carefully in gauze along with her right eye, but other than that she still looked like Callie. She was pale, her lips were still a little blue, but it was definitely Callie.

I stood beside Lena and the two of us watched the mechanical rise and fall of Callie's chest as a machine breathed for her. Lena sank into one of the seats beside her bed and held her left hand between hers. I sat beside Lena and wrapped an arm around her. "We can do this, right?" I asked Lena.

"We have to, don't we?" She said with a shrug, I nodded. "I'm going to call the kids, don't leave Callie alone, I'm sure she's scared."

"Scared? She's asleep Lena." I chuckled.

"Well I'm scared, think they'll put me in a medically induced coma until Callie wakes up?" Lena broke out a shaky smile and the heavy fog that had settled around us since the shooting started to dissipate.

"Only if you're really good and ask nicely." I leaned in and kissed her softly. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too, I'm just going to be in the hall talking to the kids. I'll tell them about Callie and that you love them, unless you want to talk to them too?"

"If someone wants to talk to me just let me know, if not tell just tell them good night." Lena nodded and walked out the room. I watched her stand in the hall and open up her phone. I glanced around our small room for the first time, a little pull out couch that turned into a tiny twin bed, two chairs and a television in the corner. I picked up the remote and turned away from the news as fast as I could, Callie wouldn't want to hear that, I ended up on some fashion show that Mariana would love, but Callie would only tolerate, I didn't know what else she would want to watch.

The hours that had inched by while Callie was in surgery seemed to stop entirely as Lena and I spent the night with her. Every hour a nurse would come in and write down her vitals, other than that not much would happen. Lena and I took turns pretending to sleep on the tiny bed, but it was impossible.

The next thing I knew it was twenty-four hours later and a team of doctors were staring around Callie's bed debating if now was the right time. Lena and I stood in the corner, we didn't have much of a say in this, but it was okay I had no idea which answer was right. "Stef, Lena, I think we're going to try and wake Callie." Someone called over. I just nodded and a syringe was injected into Callie's IV, doctors came and went for the next forty-five minutes while Lena and I hovered over the bed waiting.

When Callie's visible eye opened I smiled, there was nothing else I could do. I may not have been there when Callie was born but this had to be the exact feeling her mother had. Her eye closed slowly and then opened again, she turned looked at me, and then Lena, it was just like in the ambulance, she seemed to have trouble focusing on anything. A doctor stepped closer and started running tests, he flashed a light into Callie's eye looking for pupil dilation, he asked Callie to follow his finger with her eye, she didn't, he asked Callie to squeeze his hand, she didn't. I tried to stay calm, I didn't know enough about medicine to get worried over these types of things.

Two doctors began talking about possible next steps when Callie's eye rolled closed and her head snapped back violently. Callie began to seize right in front of us, I reached out to grab her hand, but was pushed out of the way by a doctor, a nurse corralled Lena and I into a corner as doctors injected medication after medication into Callie's IV. So many things were happening at once, Callie was having a seizure, her heart rate was dropping, her oxygen level was dropping, she stopped seizing.

Her heart stopped beating.

**Happy Holidays to all! Thanks for the stellar reviews, I love reading them. Please continue to read and review.**

**-Kodi**


	4. Chapter 4

**Welcome back! Thank you so much for the stellar reviews and please feel free to comment or PM some suggestions you may have for the story!**

**Jude**

Momma called and told us that Callie was out of surgery, Callie was out of surgery and resting. If she was resting that meant she had to be doing alright, I asked if I could visit her but she said we had to wait and see. For some reason that small piece of good news was all I needed to go back to my room and climb into bed, Mariana was sleeping beside Jesus in our room and a pang hit hard in my chest. I would walk to the hospital just to spend the night next to Callie right now, but as I lay down on my bed I realized how exhausted I was and fell asleep as soon as I pulled the covers up to my chin.

Callie and I stood in the hallway of Anchor Beach I glanced around but we were alone, "I think we're late for class." I said trying to peak into a window. Callie didn't say anything, a bang rang out through the halls. It echoed eerily in the empty halls, Callie looked around quickly but we didn't see where the noise was coming from.

"Run Jude, go, don't look back." Callie said quickly shoving me towards the exit. A faceless person in a hoodie suddenly appeared at the end of the hall, a gun in their hand, pointing directly at me and Callie. She shoved me again and I stumbled back. A shot rang out and whizzed past my ear.

"Callie come with me." I screamed and pulled on her arm, she didn't move. I tried to drag her along but she wouldn't move, another shot rang out and blood blossomed across Callie's shirt. "Callie let's go."

"Just go Jude, I'll be okay." She seemed un-fazed by the fact that she had just been shot.

"I'm not leaving you." I was crying, tears were streaming down my face, why wouldn't Callie just move? "Please come with me." Another bang rang out and this time Callie stumbled with the impact of the bullet, my heart pounded in my chest.

"Hurry Jude before you get hurt." Callie insisted. Another bang rang out and Callie was on the floor, I ended up beside the exit, leaving Callie there all alone. I didn't remember walking over there, but there I was about to leave Callie all alone. The hooded figure stood over Callie, its hand reached up and pulled back its hood. Vico's bloody face appeared from behind it, he fired two more shots into Callie and she stopped moving, my throat hurt from all the screaming and my legs began to shake as Vico turned his gun to me.

Bang.

I woke up shaking from head to foot, I dried my face with the back of my hand looked over to Jesus' bed. Mariana was still there, but they were sound asleep, my dream had seemed so real I almost expected Vico to come walking down our hallway in his hoodie. I was too scared to go back to sleep and moms were busy with Callie so I wasn't going to call them so I just sat there for a few minutes staring at the door waiting to see if Vico was actually there.

After almost half an hour I began to feel stupid, there was no way Vico was in our house. Mike would stop him if he was and most of all Vico was dead. I picked up my backpack and walked out to the living room, I turned on cartoons and grabbed a large stack of printer paper and colored pencils. I started with a simple get well card for Callie, a lot of flowers and rainbows, something to make Callie feel better. I focused on having the neatest handwriting I could when I wrote 'Get well soon, love Jude', there Callie would like that a lot.

I pulled out a clean piece of paper and drew her a picture of the house, something with everyone standing outside of it. Mom and Momma were holding hands, Brandon had his headphones on, Callie had her guitar, the twins had their arms around one another's shoulders and I drew myself as close to Callie as I possible could. I suddenly noticed that she was all I had, the twins had each other, Brandon had music, moms loved each other so much, and I had Callie, and now Callie was hurt. I carefully finished our family picture and placed it on top of her 'get well' card.

I grabbed another piece of paper and started writing, I had won the poetry contest but I had never tried to write anything for someone else. I looked down at what I had written and was surprised how honest it was, I had never been able to say these types of things to Callie out loud, but there it was. I kept writing, I had almost two pages filled up when I saw that the sun had come up and Mariana came down stairs. She looked at the pictures I had drawn and slipped out a piece of paper and started making Callie another card. I finished my letter and drew Callie a picture of the beach, I was careful to make sure it wasn't anything like the beach next to our school.

"When do you think Callie can come back home?" Mariana asked softly placing an amazing picture of a guitar on top of mine, her picture was way better than mine.

"Well mom came home in a week, maybe Callie will be home in a week too?" Mariana nodded and started working on a picture of our backyard. Brandon came downstairs and looked around and saw me and Mariana making cards, he sat down and made one and then looked around.

"Is my dad still asleep?" I shrugged. "I think I'm going to make Callie a playlist, I'll fill her ipod up with all kinds of music, a few books, it has to be boring at the hospital."

"That's a great idea." I looked down at what I had done and it looked stupid, Mariana could draw better than me and Brandon had a much better idea. I looked over my letter and decided I would start writing Callie a happy story, I would send her a new chapter every other day.

"Where's Callie's ipod?" Brandon asked looking around for her backpack.

"She took it to school." I said softly. "Do you think moms have her backpack?"

"It's probably still there, I left my backpack there too." Mariana said scribbling away at the blue sky above our backyard. Brandon stood there silently before running upstairs and disappearing for about twenty minutes, just long enough to miss the loud crashing sound coming from my bedroom. I jumped and looked around for Vico before I could stop myself, Mariana did the same thing dashing over to me and throwing her arms around me.

A scream echoed down the stairs and another crashing sound, followed by a thud. "I think it's Jesus." I whispered into Mariana's arms. She ran upstairs and I followed slowly behind her, Mariana was already in our room when I reached the stairs. I could hear Jesus screaming at Mariana while she tried to shush him and figure out what was going on, as I reached the top of the steps Mike tumbled out of mom's room pulling a shirt on his head.

"Jude what's going on?" He asked looking at me, blinking sleep out of his eyes. I didn't answer, he didn't really need me to answer he walked into my bedroom to assess the situation and a skateboard came flying out of the doorway. It punched a hole in the wall and a few pictures swayed dangerously, but the one of Callie's Gotcha' Day photo fell to the ground and broke. I picked it up and stared at it. Moms are going to be so upset that there was a hole in the wall, and Jesus broke Callie's picture, moms loved all our Gotcha' Day photos above everything else and Jesus broke Callie's. I stood in the door to my room and watched as Jesus broke every single thing that he owned.

Trophies, skateboards, his computer, his phone. Mariana tried to talk to him but he gave her a calculated shove and swore at her in a way that shut her up, she stood in the connecting bathroom and watched as Jesus destroyed half of the room. Mike seemed to be waiting for Jesus to just run out of steam and Brandon appeared behind my shoulder. "What happened?" He whispered behind me as Jesus' desk toppled to the floor, his mattress was flipped off the frame and he kicked his bedside table before punching a hole in the wall. I shrugged at Brandon and he sighed and seemed resigned to just waiting for Jesus to calm himself down.

"Should we stop him?" I asked softly so Jesus couldn't hear me and get mad at me too.

"Jesus used to have episodes like this when he first moved in with us." Brandon said leaning down so Jesus couldn't hear him either. "He'll calm down, moms won't be that upset." Brandon squeezed my shoulder and we watched as Jesus ripped everything out of his closet before collapsing into the mess and breathing heavily.

"Hey kid, wanna tell me what's going on?" Mike said carefully finally stepping into the room. Jesus started crying, body wracking sobs, Mike sat beside him and wrapped his arm around Jesus' shoulders.

"Emma." Jesus mumbled.

"Yeah buddy I know." Mike held him tighter and we just watched Jesus cry for a few minutes.

"What happened to Emma?" Mariana asked as Jesus wiped his eyes and stood up in the rubble he had created.

"She's dead, that stupid fuck Vico killed her. I'm glad he's dead otherwise I would rip his damn head off." Jesus spat, he looked ready to rip more pictures off the wall but took a few deep breaths and clenched his fists tightly. "I forgot to take my pill last night." He mumbled and pushed me and Brandon aside before running down the stairs and slamming cupboards. Mariana was crying again and Brandon looked as though he might cry too.

"Don't worry about the mess Jude, I think your stuff is okay, moms will take care of it alright?" I nodded. Brandon went back to his room and closed the door softly, I carefully made my way through the destruction to where Mariana was standing.

"I can't believe Emma's- you know?" I nodded and stared down at the broken frame in my hand. "Lena will be really upset if she sees that, we should buy a new frame and take it to Callie in the hospital." She said drying her tears and putting on a watery smile. She carefully took the picture from me and looked at the photograph of Callie and moms holding the court papers.

"I'll paint your nails." I offered, Mariana smiled and ruffled my hair.

"I'd love that." She said and we walked into her room, neither of us looked at Callie's bed.

**Stef**

I couldn't take my eyes off Callie, I had been watching her for hours and I wasn't ready to say goodbye. I thought I had understood the severity of the situation when I traveled with her in the ambulance, but now, sitting here in the bright sterile room, staring at Callie as a nurse tucked a sheet around her, I wanted to hold her. I wanted to lay beside her, I wanted to see her smile and play guitar, help Jude with his homework, hell I would even pay to see her fight with Mariana again.

"Stef." Lena said softly touching my shoulder, I ignored her. I wasn't ready to go. "I just got a call from Mike, Jesus heard about Emma." I reached out and took a hold of Callie's hand, her fingernails were a little blue, but it was still Callie. Ever since the twins had moved in with us I was the one that handled Jesus' temper, but now I just wasn't ready. "He's really upset, he trashed his room." She reached out and stroked Callie's cheek. "She'll be okay Stefanie." Lena said softly sitting beside me and covering mine and Callie's hands with her own, I looked up at Lena and wondered if she had been experiencing the same six hours I had.

"I don't want to leave her." I whispered, Lena didn't say anything, she just looked down at Callie and her shoulders drooped. I know I said I was going to go home first, but I wasn't ready, I wasn't ready to leave Callie here.

"I promise I will take great care of our daughter." Lena said staring me straight in the eye. "Do you trust me?" I felt my eyes burn, there was no way I was going to cry again, I didn't have any tears left to cry.

"Of course I trust you." I insisted, she nodded but continued to stare at me.

"Then you know I will call you if something happens and she'll never be alone, but our other children need us too. Callie wouldn't want all this attention anyway." She finished with a weak smile. I knew she was right, especially if Jesus was at home having episodes, but leaving Callie alone was the very last thing I wanted to do. "I'll give you two a minute, okay?" I nodded and she walked out of the room, and stood right outside the door.

"Hey Cal." I whispered into her hand. "You had better be good for Momma, I want you to be right here when I get back. No giving up." Her chest continued to rise and fall with the precision only a machine could create. "I love you so much." I stared at her heart monitor, the line moved steadily, for now. Her heart had stopped three times in the last six hours, she had a total of two seizures and by the way the doctors stood around they expected her to have more. "As long as you wake up, you can take as long as you need to, I'll be right here okay?" Callie didn't answer. I pressed my lips against her hand before carefully placing it back on her bed, I walked towards the door but stopped to look at her again. It amazed me how she could only look mildly injured and be so hurt. Lena's hand slipped into mine and she gently pulled me out of the room.

"Call me when you get home, make sure Jesus is safe, Mike said it was really bad." I nodded and took the car keys from her hand. "Are you okay to drive?" She asked holding onto the keys.

"Yes love, it will help me clear my head. Please call me if anything happens, anything." Lena sighed softly.

"That would just make you anxious, especially if it's something minor."

"Call me." I insisted. I gave her a kiss, took the keys, and walked away before she could say anything else. "I love you." I called out walking down the hallway, Lena waved as she walked back into Callie's room. The further away I got from Callie's room the more anxious I became, as soon as I stepped into the parking garage I already had my cell phone in hand and was ready to call Lena and ask if Callie was alright, I sat in the car with the keys in one hand and my cell phone in the other. I couldn't take it anymore and brought the phone up to my ear, it rang a few times before it was answered.

"Hey Stef." Mike said brightly, his upbeat personality was exactly what I needed. I started the car and pulled out of the garage.

"Hey, thanks for watching the kids, we owe you." I said trying to feel like my old self.

"No, you guys are family, it's what we do for each other." He insisted. There was a loud crashing sound in the background.

"How's Jesus doing?" I asked as glass broke somewhere.

"He's coping." Mike said simply. "Jesus go outside dude." Mike tried.

"Don't tell me what the fuck to do!" Jesus screamed, I flinched, the house probably looked like a tornado had come through.

"Try and get him into the garage to work out, tell him I'll be home in half an hour." Mike relayed my message to Jesus, there was more swearing and door slamming, but the background was substantially quieter.

"Teach me your ways." Mike huffed. "That kid has been screaming from the rafters for hours. How in the world have you handled that for so long?"

"He hasn't done that in years, he used to be smaller and it was a lot easier to stop him from breaking expensive things. Just try and distract him, don't worry about anything he broke. How's Jude?"

"He's been with Mariana, they made Callie some cards." Mike got quiet. "How's she doing?"

"She's still with us, she's hanging on." I said simply, it hardly described the fight going on inside of Callie.

"Well drive safe and I'll talk to you when you get home, okay? Let me make sure Jesus isn't ripping out the foundation of the house." I hung up and focused on driving, the last thing we needed was a totaled car and more hospital bills. Bills, the bills from this incident were going to be astounding. Not that it mattered, it was all things that Callie needed, if it made her better I would do anything.

I drove home from the hospital hoping that Jesus was feeling better so I could go home and take a shower, maybe after a shower I can help Jesus clean up whatever he broke and then sleep. I don't know how I felt tired right now, but I suddenly felt exhausted. I made it home and listened to the rock music pumping out of our garage, I went to the side door and stepped inside. Jesus was in there attacking an old punching bag furiously, I leaned in further so he could see me.

"Hey Mommy." He said softly. "You look tired." He wiped his face on his shirt and continued bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Yeah Callie had a rough night, but she's doing a little better." I answered honestly, Jesus nodded and tears welled up in his eyes. "How are you doing baby?"

"I broke a lot of stuff, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Momma won't be home until tonight, we'll clean it up before then, alright buddy?" He stepped closer and threw his arms around me, I was suddenly glad I was out of the hospital this kind of love was what I needed. I held tight to Jesus and tried to focus on his needs, give him the attention he deserved.

"I'm going to stay out here for a little while." Jesus said giving me a little squeeze.

"Okay. These next few weeks are going to be different around here and Momma and I are going to need a lot of help so please try and keep your temper in check. I know it's easier said than done but try and make it a priority right now." Jesus nodded and got back to work attacking the punching bag. I closed the door as I left and stood on the front porch of the house, the last time I was here was only yesterday morning.

It felt like another life time, it may be considered another lifetime. The family certainly won't be the same, an image of us sitting around the dining table without Callie burst into my head. It make my throat close and my chest hurt, it wasn't something I wanted to imagine. I let myself in my house and Mike poked his head out from the dining room, he had a broom in hand and the standard Mike smile was stretched across his face.

"Hey, do you need a drink? Some food?" He asked propping up the broom against a chair.

"No, thank you though. You don't have to clean that up." I gestured towards the broken glass, it had been so long since a Jesus episode that we had accumulated plenty of breakable items.

"Don't worry about it, you should go upstairs and rest." I got ready to argue with him but he had already guided me towards the stairs. "Go. Jude probably wants a hug from you though, he's pretty shaken up." I nodded and walked up the stairs, I reached the top and saw a freshly patched hole in the wall below where Callie's photo used to be. I sighed and knocked on Mariana's door.

"Yes?" Her voice called out.

"It's mom, I'm coming in." I announced, I opened the door and arms wrapped tightly around my waist. Jude practically threw himself at me, I hugged him back tightly and the anxieties I had about Callie slowly melted away.

"I missed you, is Momma home too?" He asked into my shirt.

"No, she's staying with Callie and I'll switch with her tonight. Is that okay?" He nodded, Mariana waited for Jude to let go before hugging me too. "I missed you babies, what have you been up to? Still in your pajamas I see." I said raising an eyebrow towards Jude, his cheeks reddened.

"I made some cards and pictures for Callie, Mariana helped." Jude jogged over to Callie's desk and picked up a stack of papers. "You can take them to her when you go back tonight. Has she asked about me?"

"I will definitely take these back with me. Callie is still asleep, the doctors want to keep her that way so her brain has time to get better, but I'm sure she'll ask about you when they wake her up." I said kissing the top of his head. "I heard Jesus had a rough morning, did he break anything of yours?" Jude shook his head. "Alright, I've been up all night, I'm going to check on Brandon and take a shower are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, do you think Jesus will be okay if I go hang out with him?" Jude asked softly.

"You'd have to ask him, he's pretty upset so don't feel bad if he says no, okay?" I walked to the end of the hall where you could hear Brandon's keyboard pounding, I walked into his room and he looked up from his Casio.

"Hey mom." He looked run down, exhausted. "How's Callie?"

"She's doing better, not great, but better." I answered honestly.

"Well that's good right?" I nodded and he smiled a little. "I think Callie's backpack is still at school and that had her iPod so I erased my old one and filled it with all types of music I think she may like. You could also take her the guitar, it's downstairs, she'd probably love that." Brandon handed me an iPod with a cord wrapped around it and started towards the door.

"No B, Callie's not doing that kind of good. She's in a coma buddy, medically induced, the music is great, but it's going to be a while before she can play again. Okay?" Brandon nodded and sat back down glumly.

"When can we visit?"

"Soon." I promised, Brandon seemed to be itching to get back to playing his keyboard in solitude, I excused myself and closed his door softly behind me as I left. I looked in Jesus and Jude's room to inspect the damage, it wasn't good, but it wasn't horrible. Jesus was going to have to save up his allowance to replace his laptop and some of his nicer things, but other than that it would be okay.

I went into my room and blasted the hot water, the shower was amazing and cleared my head when it suddenly felt as though I had been punched in the stomach. It was heart wrenching to watch my daughter fight for her life, Emma's parents had to be incapacitated with pain.

**Jude**

I made sure all my nails were dry before heading to the garage outside. Jesus was in there working out, singing along with the lyrics pumping out of the stereo. He didn't look up as I walked in, I looked at all the weights and realized I had no idea how to use any of them. "Sorry if I broke your stuff." Jesus said behind me, I jumped a little and tried to look tough.

"It's okay, I promise." I picked up a dumbbell, twelve pounds was heavier than I expected.

"Here use this one." Jesus handed me a lighter weight. "Like this." We did a few reps together, Jesus talking every once and a while to help me with my form.

"Sorry about Emma." I said finally. "I really liked her."

"Yeah, me too." Jesus said without looking at me. "I hope Callie is okay."

"Yeah, me too." I repeated back at him. We didn't say anything. "Callie used to get mad like you did, she trashed her bedroom when she found out our mom died." Jesus didn't say anything. "I don't usually get mad like that though, I pushed you, I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't be sorry." He said quickly. "You had every right to be upset, I didn't break that stuff just because of Emma. I was mad about Callie, I can't imagine losing her, I just thought, 'if losing Emma hurts so much what would it feel like if Callie was gone too?' and I snapped." Jesus picked up heavier weights and kept going. "But you should probably work out more, you push like a kindergartner." I couldn't help it and smiled.

"Here's a deal, either of us get mad or sad or scared or whatever, we bring the other to come work out. Okay?" I said as the idea formed in my mind.

"Deal, but I'll always be able to lift more than you." I rolled my eyes and he shoved me gently. "Thanks, Jude." He whispered, I don't know if I was supposed to be able to hear his say it so I just nodded in time with the music and finished the last five minutes of his work out with him.

We went back into the house and cleaned up our room, Mom was sleeping and with the news of Callie's improvement in the house everything lightened just a little. Things could go back to the way they were, it wasn't impossible, it was unlikely, but it wasn't impossible.

Mom was in our room rehanging clothes in Jesus' closet, her wet hair hanging around her shoulders. Jesus righted his desk and I went downstairs to get the broom, we fixed the room in an hour and mom went to go take a nap.

**Stef**

I woke up as my phone went off, I fumbled around with it, something had to have happened to Callie. Where the hell was my phone, I ripped the covers back from my bed, maybe it was just another seizure, we could deal with that. I found my phone and squinted at the harsh light, it took me a minute to understand that it was just my alarm and not Lena calling. I shut it off and covered my face with my pillow, I don't know if I am ready for another night of worrying.

I called Lena, she answered right away. "Hey Stef." I couldn't tell if she was tired or worried, maybe it was both.

"Hey, how's Callie?"

"She's doing better, her heart rate has improved, she hasn't had another seizure. How are the kids?"

"Great, we cleaned up the boys room it wasn't too bad and Jesus knows he has to replace what he broke. He and Jude have been hanging out, it's pretty adorable. The kids all made Callie something so I'll bring it tonight. How are you doing?"

"I'm tired, I'm ready to see my other babies, but I know how you felt, I'm not ready to leave Callie." I turned on the lamp beside our bed and started to get dressed.

"Yeah I know. Do you know how long Callie will be in the ICU?"

"I have no idea, How long until you get here?"

"Probably an hour, are you okay?" There was silence. "Lena?"

"I'm just worried." She finally said. "We aren't going to see much of each other these next few months."

"We'll figure it out." That was all I could think of, because it was true. I had no idea how our family was going to handle having one parent home at a time when we had to be there for Callie and even after that how were we going to help Callie at home? "I'll see you soon, okay?"

We said our goodbyes and I got ready for a night in the hospital, I couldn't help but feel like this was going to become a normal routine for me. I kissed all the kids good-night and got back into my car, I brought all the pictures and cards the kids had made for Callie and was excited to see how much better she was doing, even if it was just a few numbers on a heart monitor.

I reentered the sterile hospital and followed the footprints I hadn't noticed before, I hadn't even realized the attempts at cheer they had covered every surface in. I don't even think I had put two and two together that Callie was in a children's hospital, I entered the ICU and all the color evaporated. Everything was cold, clean, and professional. I smiled at the nurse at the front desk and walked over to Callie's room, Lena jumped up and hugged me. I assured her that Mike had everything under control at home and there was no work for her to do when she got there. All she had to do was get home safely, take a shower, and go to bed. We carefully arranged all of Callie's cards on her bedside table and checked in with her doctor before he went home for the night. Things were looking better, that's all we knew, but it was great.

Lena stood in Callie's doorway trying to think up every excuse not to leave, we stood outside Callie's room and tried to fit in five minutes of mom time before we parted ways when Lena's eyes widened. I spun around to check on Callie through the glass, she was seizing again, her heart rate was plummeting. "We need help." I screamed and ran back into Callie's room, not again, not again.

The doctor working the night shift came in and we could tell right away that something had changed. Callie was getting worse so fast something had to have gone wrong, no matter how many drugs they pushed into Callie's IV she didn't stop seizing. "Her brain is swelling, we're taking her into surgery." She called out and Callie was wheeled away before we could say goodbye.

"What are we supposed to do?" Lena asked to the empty room.

"You can still go home if you want, you deserve a full nights sleep." I mumbled.

"Stefanie there is no way I'm sleeping tonight. Let's go to the waiting room, we'll keep each other company. I'm sure Callie will be alright." I nodded and we went back to sitting in the dreadful room of chairs and suppressed emotions. "I'm going to call Mike and tell him what happened." Lena said quietly excusing herself.

I stared at the TV in the corner of the room, there were two other families in here waiting with us. Just as Lena sat down a nurse came in and brought us back to the private room down the hall, she stated someone would be with us soon and started to walk away. "Do you know anything about how Callie is doing?" I asked before she could close the door.

"No, I'm sorry, but someone who does will be here soon." I nodded and stood beside Lena.

"It's going to be okay." Lena whispered to herself over and over as if that would have some effect on the outcome of Callie's most recent surgery. By the time a doctor arrived to talk to us I had convinced myself that the worst had truly happened.

"Callie's doing alright." He opened with, Lena broke down in tears and I wrapped an arm around her. She hadn't slept for almost two days and this was just adding on to the absurd amount of stress she was feeling, she was responsible for every student that was in that school and they had just been targeted in the worst way. "She had a seizure, on some level we expect those with the extent of her brain injury. What worried us was the rapid swelling of her brain, we performed another CAT scan and saw that the bullet fragment that had been in her cerebellum had traveled and was placing pressure on her brain stem. We removed it, the swelling has stopped, Callie is doing much better. We're going to keep her in a medically induced coma for two weeks and closely monitor her. She'll be out in an hour, the movement of the fragment caused minor bleeding, nothing to be worried about."

"Thank you, thank you so much." Lena sniffled.

"You can wait here or back in the ICU, I'll let you know if anything else happens, but she's already doing much better." The mood in the room lifted drastically. He excused himself and Lena and I were left there alone.

"You really need some sleep." I said drying her face and hugging her tightly. "I'm going to call Mike to come pick you up in an hour, you can see Callie and make sure she's alright, but you're going to drive yourself crazy staying here for days at a time. Okay?" Lena nodded.

"We should go wait in her room." She said gathering herself and tying her hair up. We waited in Callie's room and almost exactly an hour later they brought her back in, she looked exactly the same as when she left, but everything around her seemed so fragile.

Mike called and Lena kissed Callie and I goodnight before leaving us for the night. There was no way I would get any sleep tonight, I trusted these surgeons with my daughter's life and I would continue to, but Callie had scared me enough over the past two days that I was going to worry about her for years.

**I know this chapter wasn't as packed with drama, but I hope you guys continue to read! Thanks for reading this far, have a great 2015!**

**-Kodi**


	5. Chapter 5

**Stef-**

Lena and I managed to work things out, our life was bearable and almost stable. I would spend the nights with Callie while Lena would be there during the day, and even though eighty-five percent of our time was now spent on Callie related things, Lena and I struggled to divide the remaining fifteen percent between our other four kids.

My mom drove down and helped feed the kids and keep the house clean and our friends had dropped off all kinds of casseroles and enough lasagna for two weeks straight. But the stress was still evident for everyone. I drove home at eight in the morning to see Jesus jog into the driveway. He stopped at the door and waved as I parked the car, I waved back and grabbed my duffel bag out of the backseat and walked towards the house.

"Hi mom." He said brightly

"Hi handsome." I stifled a yawn and followed him into the house. "Do you have any plans today?" He shrugged.

"Maybe I can teach Jude how to play basketball." I tried to ignore the exhaustion creeping over me and listen to Jesus.

"I'm sure he would love to have you teach him, as long as you are patient." Jesus put on a sarcastic look of faux offense. I sat beside him at the kitchen table and my mom placed a heaping plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes in front of me. "Oh, mom, I'm not hungry."

"Can I have your bacon?" Jesus asked, reaching over.

"Stefanie you need to eat, you're getting so thin." She said swatting away Jesus' hand. Lena and the kids came down the stairs just in time to save me from an argument with my mother and while she was turned away, serving everyone else, I scooped half my breakfast onto Jesus' plate.

Mariana ran up and gave me a tight hug. "I missed you." She said into my shoulder.

"I missed you too." I said honestly. Mariana sat beside Jesus and took her plate from my mother. "Mom come eat with us, that's the point of these family meals." Every breakfast and dinner we tried to eat together, it was two hours out of every day to devote on them. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was what we had.

Lena sat at the table beside me and I held her hand tightly. "Good morning love, how did you sleep?" I asked leaning in to kiss her.

"Alright, nothing special." My mom continued to fly around the kitchen, passing the kids food.

"Thanks Grandma." Brandon said brightly taking the syrup from Jesus.

"Does anyone want orange juice?" She asked dashing over to the refrigerator.

"Mom please sit down. They're big kids, they can get what they need." Lena squeezed my hand and I took a deep breath. No need to get stressed out over breakfast. My mom got everyone a drink and made a plate for herself. "Brandon do you have anything going on today?" I asked, trying to ignore the whirlwind that was my mother.

"The band has rehearsal today." He piled eggs and bacon onto a pancake before dipping it into a puddle of syrup and taking a huge bite out of one end. "We're working on a couple of new pieces and"-

"That's Callie's seat." Jude burst out from the other end of the table. My mother jumped back and the room was awkwardly silent for a moment.

"Jude I think it's alright for Grandma to sit there while Callie's not here." Lena said softly.

"It's alright." My mother said shakily. "I'll pull up another chair." My mother pulling up another chair caused everyone to stare at the empty spot at the table that belonged to Callie.

"Speaking of Callie." I said softly wiping my face in a napkin. "She did very well last night, they think she might be breathing on her own in the next couple of days and once she is she'll be out of the ICU."

"Will they wake her up early?" Mariana asked, trying to break the tension that had been created.

"No we'll be lucky if they wake her up when they said they would. We want Callie to have the best chance right now." The silence settled over the table again. "But I was thinking, once Callie is out of the ICU, you guys can come visit her. She won't be awake, but she needs visitors I think it helps." The mood brightened around the table, maybe seeing Callie would be just as helpful for them as it will be for her.

"Also." Lena said, clearing her throat. "Tomorrow is the memorial service for everyone at the school." Jesus put his fork on the table and stared at his food. I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed tightly. "None of you have to go, but Mom and I are going to be there and if you want to come you can."

"Who is going to be with Callie?" Jude asked looking between Lena and myself.

"Callie is going to be alone for a few hours tomorrow, all of her doctors have my phone number and they have Momma's too. They'll call us if anything happens, but she'll be okay." Jude didn't seem to believe us, but that was the least of our worries.

"What about funerals?" Brandon asked softly.

"Some of them are on Saturday and the others are on Sunday. All the information will be at the memorial." Lena looked around at the kids.

"I want to go." Jude said softly. I smiled and nodded, Brandon and Mariana both said they wanted to go as well.

"I don't know." Jesus whispered.

"No one is going to make you go baby, you don't have to make up your mind until tomorrow." I took another bite of eggs and glanced at Callie's empty seat, I missed her already and I had just been with her less than an hour ago. "Mike is going back to work today and you all have been so patient and well behaved, I don't know what you did with my kids." I said nudging Jesus in the ribs as he resumed shoveling food into his mouth. "I'm very proud, can you please keep up the good work for grandma?"

"I'm always on my best behavior." Mariana said, sitting up a little straighter. Jude giggled and Mariana shoved him.

"I'm telling you to be on your best behavior so grandma doesn't have to punish you, I lived with her for eighteen years and I can tell you that she is not afraid of a fight." Jude looked skeptically at my mother.

"Mom's fibbing, grandma will just give you five dollars to help with the laundry." Brandon whispered. Everyone started laughing at this and breakfast ended on a high note, Brandon helped my mom clean all the dishes as I walked Lena out to the car so she could spend the day with Callie.

"I smell like hospital and really need a shower." I grumbled placing her bag in the car.

"It's okay, I love you anyways." She leaned against the car and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "You look exhausted, please try and get some sleep."

"I will, I promise. Callie had one seizure last night, it wasn't too bad, she was stable the whole time." Lena nodded. "Are you ready for the memorial service?"

"I have to go Stef, I was their vice principle."

"If you aren't ready you don't have to go either." I said softly. Lena leaned in and kissed me. I held her tightly and rested my head on her shoulder. "I hate sleeping alone."

"Soon we'll have Callie back home with us and everyone will sleep in their own beds, and in a few years they'll all have their own apartments and we'll have the house to ourselves." It sounded wonderful, but after almost losing Callie I wasn't ready for any of them to leave.

"I have to go back to work." I said softly. "These hospital bills are going to start coming in soon and you aren't getting paid, we have to do something." I felt my shoulders droop.

"We'll figure it out, it's going to be okay." I nodded and pulled away slightly. "I love you so much." I kissed her again.

"You're right, you do smell like hospital." Lena said, crinkling her nose. I laughed lightly and opened the door to the car for her to get in.

"Take care of that girl."

"You know I will." I watched her pull out of the driveway and the wall of exhaustion collapsed on top of me. I shuffled back into the house to see Jude sitting on the couch.

"Don't sit here and watch television all day buddy." I whispered, ruffling his hair.

"I won't mom, I promise." He looked up at me and smiled. "You look pretty tired, you should get some sleep." You could not fool this kid. I kissed him and started walking up stairs, the kids knew that they had to be quiet and tried to stay downstairs while I slept.

I woke up to Lena crawling in bed beside me. Her head rested on my chest, her hair tickled my nose, I draped my arm across her shoulders. "You smell like hospital." I mumbled. She didn't say anything, I thought she might have already been asleep, but she started crying. "Hey, what happened?" I asked suddenly wide awake.

"I feel like I let them down." She sobbed. I kissed the top of her head and held her tightly. "All those kids were counting on me, I was in charge of them and I failed." I wasn't sure what to say. "And Callie, Callie is ours we promised to love her and protect her and she's going to be in the hospital for weeks."

"Lena I know. It was a freak occurrence, Vico had a lot of problems and he took them out on other people, we can't blame ourselves. You can't blame yourself." I knew it wasn't going to help anything, she was probably going to blame herself for a long time. "You're exhausted baby, we both are, but things are already starting to get better. They'll wake Callie up in ten days and soon enough she'll be home."

"She had a rough day." My arm froze on Lena's back, my heart beat a little faster. "She's okay, but I was worried."

"Why didn't you call?"

"I didn't want you to be worried too." Lena sniffed.

"Are you sure you're ready for the memorial?" I wasn't sure I was ready for the memorial either, but all of this was really taking a toll on Lena. She had loved each and every child that stepped foot in Anchor Beach and this was the worst thing that could happen.

"Yeah, I have to." She said simply. Lena fell asleep moments later and I didn't have the heart to pull her off of me, I was so tired, I hadn't slept properly in days and finally having Lena beside me again caused me to doze off a few minutes later.

**Jude-**

Momma came home and after hugging each of us she walked upstairs to her room and closed the door softly. I helped Grandma set the table and a slightly unidentifiable casserole was placed in the middle of the table.

"How many more of these do we have to eat?" Mariana asked looking disgusted at the pan. She filled each glass around the table and made a gagging motion in my direction.

"Your mom's friends were really nice and are helping us out. Not all of them are as good at cooking as I am, but it does help a lot." Grandma said looking warily at the casserole. "Jude go get your moms for dinner. Knock first." She said motioning towards the stairs. I dashed up taking two at a time and slid down the hall in my socks before stopping at their door.

"Moms?" I asked knocking softly, they didn't answer. I cracked the door open and squinted through the darkness inside. "Momma?" I asked into the darkness, my eyes adjusted slowly and I could see them on the bed. Lena was fully dressed in the clothes she was wearing when she left and Stef had both her arms wrapped around her. I stepped inside the room and placed my hand on Stef's shoulder. "Mommy?" I whispered softly.

"Mhm?" She groaned, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

"Grandma says dinner is ready." I watched as my Mom tried not to fall asleep, but she was already drifting away. "Should I tell her you guys are sleeping?" I asked leaning a little closer.

"No honey, we'll come down, it's family dinner." Stef said rubbing Lena's back, Lena stirred slowly and Stef sat up. "Thank you Jude, we'll be right down." I nodded and closed the door softly as I left, I jumped down the stairs and found everyone sitting at the table.

"They're on their way." I said taking my seat. We waited for about a minute, Jesus wouldn't stop talking about basketball drills he wanted to teach me since I wasn't too bad, I hated it, but Jesus didn't need to know that. Moms took their seats and we passed around the casserole.

"So who do we have to thank for this…lovely creation?" Stef asked, picking it apart with her fork.

"I don't know, there wasn't a name on the re-heating instructions." Grandma said with a laugh. Mariana took a bite and gagged dramatically.

"Alright, I'm ordering pizza." Lena said brightly.

"I should get going." Stef said looking at the clock.

"Can you stay home tonight?" I heard myself ask before I even thought about it. I had enjoyed seeing my moms together, they needed more of it.

"Well, I don't know how I feel about leaving Callie alone." Stef said looking at Lena.

"She's just asleep." I said with a shrug, I knew it was more complicated than that, but I also knew Callie would want moms to be happy. "I don't think she'd mind." I added.

"I'll call and ask, Brandon can you please order the pizza; Jesus, Mari, and Jude help Grandma clean the kitchen and pick a movie. Okay?" Lena said as they walked back upstairs. I turned to the kitchen to see Jesus tossing the casserole into the trash can and Mariana putting away the unused dishes.

"Callie will be alright for one night, right?"

"She'll be fine." Jesus said handing Grandma a stack of dirty dishes. "Moms will see her tomorrow. Grandma?" He asked pausing at the sink.

"Yes?"

"Do you think I should go to the memorial?" Jesus asked seriously. The kitchen got really quiet and Mariana dried the already dry dishes so she could listen to their conversation.

"Well, it's truly up to you. But when your Grandpa died I was very thankful for the chance to say goodbye." Jesus chewed on his bottom lip and seemed to be seriously contemplating what he was supposed to do. "Listen, you don't have to stay there forever and you don't even have to talk to anyone while you're there, memorial services are there for you to remember the good times and so if you think you don't need a service for that then you don't have to go." A smile broke across his face and he nodded.

"Thanks Grandma." Mariana looked confused.

"So are you going?" She asked. "I don't think I want to go if you aren't going."

"I'll let you know tomorrow." He taunted, Mariana huffed and put away the last of the dishes. "I get to pick the movie." Jesus yelled throwing down his towel and running into the living room. Mariana and I chased after him and took our usual places on the couch.

Brandon sat beside me and we watched as Jesus pulled movie after movie off the shelves. "Mom is going to be pissed if she sees you threw all these movies on the floor." He said casually as Jesus tried to narrow his choices between nearly thirty movies laid out on the floor. Mariana was texting furiously beside us and I was just hoping that Jesus wouldn't pick 'Transformers' again.

"What movie did you pick babies?" Stef asked, she and Lena had changed into their pajamas and Lena's expression changed dramatically as she saw the mess that Jesus had made.

"Really? You can't pick just one?"

"These are classics." Jesus exclaimed gesturing to all the movies.

"These are not classics." Stef laughed, picking up 'Night at the Museum'. "Here what about this one?" She asked walking over to the shelf and pulling out a film called 'The Goonies'. "This is a classic."

"What's it about?" I asked looking at the cover, it looked old.

"Treasure and pirates and adventure, all the stuff a growing kid needs." Stef insisted. No one objected to her choice and Lena glared at Jesus until he returned every movie to its place on the shelf. "Mom are you going to join us for 'The Goonies'?" Stef asked placing the DVD in the player.

"I think I'm going to call it a night, It'll be good to get some time to myself you know?" Grandma kissed everyone goodnight and made her way to Brandon's room, which she had to herself and Brandon was sleeping with Jesus and I.

As the movie started the pizza arrived and Momma dimmed the lights as we enjoyed food that hadn't been re-heated for the first time in a few days. The movie was pretty funny and really cool, even if it was old. Moms fell asleep in the first couple of minutes of the movie, but it didn't stop the night from feeling like a true family night even if it was painfully obvious that Callie wasn't here with us. Callie would have loved 'The Goonies', when she gets home I'm going to show it to her.

Brandon woke up moms so they could get a good nights sleep in their own bed, together, for the first time in days and I went to go brush my teeth and get ready for bed myself. Brandon had a mattress on the floor in our room, it didn't take up a ton of space, but we still had to walk in a strange pattern around it.

I don't think any of my brothers slept that night and I'm positive Mariana didn't. The idea of a memorial service for our classmates and friends was nauseating, but it was happening in a few hours. It was dark in my room and I couldn't actually see it, but I stared at Callie's 'Gotcha Day' photo, now in a new frame, and positioned on my bedside table. I tried to figure out what Callie would have wanted me to do, but either way Callie wasn't here. Eventually the sun came up and once nine o' clock rolled around everyone in the house began to stir.

**Stef-**

I woke up, rested, with my wife in my arms. "We need to do this more often. I missed you." I mumbled as she started to wake up.

"I know, Callie did alright without us, no calls." I checked my phone just in case, but there were no missed calls. "It's like leaving the kids with a babysitter for the first time, the separation anxiety with her is unbearable."

"Tell me about it." I said stretching and pulling up her doctor's number. "So once a week, we're going to be home together. Okay?" Lena nodded and snuggled into the covers again. "Hi I'm calling to check on Callie Adams-Foster. I just wanted to know how her night went, this is her mother." I said as a nurse answered the phone.

"Hi Mrs. Adams-Foster, just give me a second to check Callie's chart." There was a rustling of papers. "She did great, she's doing great." The woman said brightly. I thanked her and hung up.

"Callie did great apparently, maybe we need to stay home more often and she'll get better on her own terms, just like she does everything else." Lena snorted and we laid there, comfortably for thirty minutes. "I need to get ready." I sighed.

"The memorial starts at noon." Lena muttered, I knew she wasn't actually going to sleep anymore, but getting up would also make this memorial very real.

"I'm going to stop by and see Callie before I go, do you think the kids want to stop by and visit her?" Lena turned to look at me and her brows furrowed a little.

"I think Callie proved she'll be okay today, and I think the other kids need us more right now. These are their friends, and seeing Callie today would probably just be too much. Maybe tomorrow." I chewed on my bottom lip, I couldn't stand not knowing what was going on with Callie, but Lena was right. The memorial was going to be a lot and there were going to be reporters there, there was nothing I could say to that and so we stayed there in bed listening to the kids get ready.

My mom was making food again and you could hear Mariana running around trying to find the flats that matched her blue dress. I suddenly felt overwhelming anxiety, my throat seemed to swell shut and my heart pounded in my ears. "Are you alright?" I hadn't felt this way since I had heard about the shooting. I forced myself to sit up and struggled to take deep steading breaths, Lena rubbed circles across my back, but it wasn't helping at all. Lena eventually climbed out of bed and returned with a glass of water.

"I have to go check on Callie." I stressed to Lena, she had to be the source of this anxiety it only made sense. "Something happened, I know it, I can feel it." I stressed to Lena.

"Callie is fine." Lena reasoned. "This is another reason why you can't visit her today, it's tearing you apart." I glared at Lena for a moment, mostly because she was right. "I know, I swear I know, but I have faith Callie will be okay." I took a shaky gulp of water before placing the glass on the bedside table.

"I can't stand this." I muttered as the anxiety eased slowly. "I love Callie, I can't stand not knowing if she's going to be okay."

"I understand, but Callie is a strong girl, we knew that when she went into that house to save Jude after being here for a week. This is what we love about her and she's not going to let us down." Lena seemed to have thought all of this through. "We have to do something about these anxiety attacks Stef."

"It'll get better. I'm just stressed out, I won't even try to go back to work until they stop." I promised her. I didn't know if it was true, but the anxieties I was having were nothing compared to what my children had been through and I wasn't going to let them see me like this.

Lena and I sat there quietly watching the minutes tick by and eventually we had to get up and get dressed for the memorial service. There was an eerie silence in the house, we packed into the car and I held Lena's hand across the console between our seats.

I pulled into the parking lot of the community center and stopped the car, no one moved to get out and I shakily reached forward to shut the car off. "What are we supposed to do here?" Jude asked looking out the window, hundreds of flowers lead up to the entrance of the building and pictures of the kids that died were everywhere.

"Just listen buddy, and if for any reason you want to leave Momma or I will wait outside with you. That goes for all of you, okay?" I took a deep breath and unbuckled my seatbelt. My movement was a catalyst for everyone else to start to get out of the car. Brandon, Jesus, and Mariana walked ahead, but Jude hung back to walk between Lena and myself. I rested my hand on his shoulder and we walked past the ring of reporters surrounding the entrance. "You look very handsome." I said as Jude smoothed his hair back.

"I need a haircut." He grumbled, he was right, it looked kind of shaggy, but I would have to remember to give Brandon money to take Jude to get a haircut. I clenched my jaw a little as we entered the community center, the only thing I could compare it to was the funeral of a fellow officer. There were police forces from other states and counties, elaborate mountains of stuffed animals, cards, and flowers surrounded five foot photographs of each victim.

Emma's parents stood a few feet away from her photo, they looked empty and hurt, but were thanking people as they passed. Mike walked up and hugged each of us, Lena was dragged away to speak with some parents, but Jude hovered by my side and honestly I was thankful for someone to keep me company.

I couldn't stop staring at Emma's memorial, curly brown hair cascaded down her shoulders, beautiful brown eyes, she looks – looked, she looked like Callie. The reaction was instantaneous, my throat closed over and the familiar sting of tears returned, but I couldn't look away. Jude's hand slipped into mine and he squeezed tightly, I tore my eyes away and gave him a watery smile. We walked around for a few minutes, politely paying our condolences to each student and victim, but I carefully avoided Callie's corner of the center. It was smaller than the students that had lost their lives, but every time I got close I had the urge to call the hospital and check on her.

I pulled out my cell phone and held it tightly in my hand, I had just touched the screen to call the hospital when Captain Roberts stoop up on the small stage and the room fell silent. "Thank you for being here." She had rehearsed this multiple times, but the emotion was obviously still there. Lena reappeared at my side and I listened as Captain Roberts began reading a paragraph about each of the deceased as their photos played across a screen behind her.

"The family of Ryan Daniels invites you to pray or send positive thoughts his direction. Police forces across the nation have collected donations and I am honored to present them to the Daniels family to help with medical expenses." I applauded automatically with everyone else. A photo of Ryan played across the screen as Captain Roberts began describing his favorite hobbies, games, and subjects.

I spaced out until Callie's picture appeared on the screen, the anxiety returned but Jude squeezed my hand again, I don't think he was ready for Callie's picture either. "I have served this community for fifteen years and in that time I have gotten to know so many of you and I am honored to serve this county. Everyone in our community is personally connected to a victim, Callie Adams-Foster is sixteen years old and just found her forever-family with my colleague Officer Stefanie Foster and her wife Lena Adams-Foster. Callie was officially adopted two weeks ago, but she has been apart of their family for six months. We have a donation for the Foster family in their time of need." Lena held my hand tightly as we accepted the envelope, I remembered thanking her and walking away. Captain Roberts approached me after a few closing statements and I struggled to find the right things to day.

"How's Callie doing?" She asked softly so no one could overhear us.

"She's alright, I can't thank you enough for this donation." Lena said with a tight smile.

"I wish I had more to do with it, if you need anything please let me know. I will help in any way that I can. Take your time returning to work, please." I nodded and thanked her as she walked away.

"I'm ready to go home Lena, I can't take much more of this."

"We have to be polite, let's say good-bye and then we can leave. Okay?" I nodded and followed her around thanking everyone for their attendance and answering casual questions about Callie's well-being. Everyone wanted to know more than we actually knew, when was Callie coming home? No idea. Is she going to be alright? No idea. When will she be ready to have more visitors? No idea. Lena and I just smiled and thanked people for their support before moving on.

"Now we can leave." Lena sighed rounding up the rest of the kids and ushering them towards the door. We drove home just as quietly as we had arrived and the kids went inside leaving Lena and I in the car alone. "That was terrible." I was surprised by her honesty and I couldn't help but smile.

"I can't believe they gave us a donation, we should have given it back." I huffed holding out the envelope.

"I would agree if we didn't need the money. How much is it anyways?" I shrugged and handed it to her to open, I wanted very little to do with it. "Oh, wow, Stefanie." Lena breathed.

"What?" Lena held a check in her trembling hands, I leaned over but I still couldn't see it. I took it from her and felt my mouth fall open. "This can't be right. We have to give it back." I insisted.

"There's a note." Lena said clearing her throat. "Captain Roberts expected you would want to give it back, and yes it's the right amount." I handed it back to Lena and gripped the steering wheel of the parked car tightly.

"I can't believe it." I whispered. "Twenty thousand dollars, I-I don't know who to thank or what to do with that money." Lena just nodded in agreement. "All of it goes towards Callie, that's what they gave it to us for and that's where it's going to go."

**Callie-**

I was stuck in Anchor Beach, the halls echoed with each step I took. I walked around for hours, hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks. I didn't know what I was looking for or where I was supposed to be going, after a few days I remembered that my mom worked here. How could I forget something so important, my mom's office was around here somewhere. I stood in the middle of the hall and looked around, I was near the library after the library comes the, the, was it the gym or the cafeteria. Was Momma's office on the east side or the south side of campus?

Something was wrong in my head, something wasn't right, I had been going to school here for months I knew this school, I knew where everything was but I couldn't remember. I decided to go right. Each hallway looked like the last until I came to a closed door, I hesitated to open it. My heart pounded in my ears and I rested my hand on the cold handle.

"Callie." My name echoed through the halls.

"Jude?" I shouted, it sounded as though he was behind this door. I jerked the handle, it stayed stubbornly shut. "Jude where are you?" I was terrified. "Please say something." I begged, but the halls were silent again. I rested my back against the locked door and sank down to the floor, why in the world was this happening and what was going on?

If this was a dream it was cruel, it had jumped from a nightmare to a night terror within the first few hours. Any time I made progress I would turn around and the hallways would seem entirely different, I was tired, I was done. I sat against that door and tried to think of anything other than the maze that had consumed me.

The lights at the end of the hall began to flicker, I held my knees closer to my chest. "Jude?" I called out again. "Jude I'm scared." I whispered. The lights above me began to flicker, I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on my knees. When I lifted my head I was back in the hallway near the front door.

This happened every time the lights went out, every single time I would reappear here in the front hall of the school. It used to happen all the time in the beginning, when I had first woken up in the school I couldn't make it past the first couple of hallways without the lights going out and restarting at the front door. Now that I could walk for what felt like miles before the lights went out and there was still no way to get out I was frustrated beyond belief. Maybe this was hell.

**Stef-**

Less than twenty-four hours after the memorial our life was back to revolving around Callie and trying to accommodate the kids. I arrived at the hospital late in the afternoon to spend the night with Callie like I usually did, a nurse came in and carefully cut away the bandage wrapped around her head. Her doctor came around and checked the staples on the back of her head, her hair was starting to grow back.

"Five more days and we can take all these sutures out." He said with a smile. "I don't see any reason to redress the area so you two are good for the night." I thanked him, I pulled a brush out of a duffel bag of Callie's things and ran it under the sink in her room before attacking her hair. There were knots and tangles everywhere, I was a gentle as I could be and tried not to touch the bits of dried blood matting hair together. Five days and we could wash her hair, but for now this would have to do.

When I finished she looked like Callie, I tucked her hair behind her ears and couldn't stop thinking about how much I had missed these curls. Now I just wanted to get her off this ventilator and get the feeding tube out of her nose and we would have Callie back.

I took my seat beside Callie and opened up my laptop to get ready to start budgeting, it was the only way we were going to be able to stay afloat with Lena out of work for the next few months and Callie's hospital bills, even with the hefty donation. I turned the television on for background noise and didn't notice it was on the news until it was too late.

"Today we mourn the death of Ryan Daniels, a victim of the Anchor Beach shooting, who up until today was fighting for his life in the hospital." My head snapped up and I watched as the memorial in front of Anchor Beach splashed across the screen. "Ryan was shot in the back multiple times and his parents told us that he was still in very critical condition, an hour ago Ryan passed away due to respiratory failure." I felt like throwing up, my hands were shaking and I looked at Callie.

The death count had gone from seven to eight, just like that and eight could be nine if things went downhill with Callie. I reached out with a shaky hand and placed it on top of hers, she suddenly seemed so fragile again, I tried to imagine what she looked like without all the tape on her face, but now all I could see was how much she had changed. All the weight she had lost and the dark bags under her eyes, nine days until they let her wake up, but now nine days seemed like forever, and so much could go wrong in nine days.

I stared at that picture of Ryan and I had to know what had happened in that school. What could have gone wrong? I turned off the TV and closed my laptop, I was going to spend this time with Callie even if it meant not getting anything done. It actually started to hit me that when Callie woke up she wouldn't be the same and I wasn't sure I was ready to deal with that either. I spent the night reading to her and telling her about the memorial service, I talked about Jude and how much better he's doing so Callie shouldn't worry at all. I even told her about some of the not as good things, my anxiety and how tired Momma's been lately. They were things I wouldn't normally tell any of the kids, but in a sense Callie had earned the right to know everything and it was a toss-up if Callie could actually hear and understand me.

Once the sun came up I drove home to have breakfast with the family and broke the news to them that Ryan had passed away. "So I was thinking, maybe tomorrow, you guys would like to go visit Callie?"

"Is Callie going to die too?" Mariana asked, she was crying and Jude looked like he was about to cry too.

"No Callie is doing much better, and I think it would help if you guys came to visit." I added brightly. "So, Momma how about I take you to the hospital? I'm going to go talk to Captain Roberts today." Lena looked confused, but obviously didn't want to bring it up in front of the kids. I avoided talking about it during the car ride to the hospital, but I assured her that I was okay, I kissed her goodbye before driving to the police station.

I stood in the Captain's office, I had made sure I showered and all the knots in my hair had been taken care of. "Foster I don't know why you're here." She said for the tenth time.

"I just need a favor Ma'am." I said softly. She nodded for me to sit in the chair across from her desk, the same chair I had occupied the day of the shooting.

"How's your family doing?" She asked closing her office door.

"Better, things are coming together. Lena told me they're finishing up the investigation and they've started looking into restoring parts of the school." Captain Roberts nodded.

"Yes, I think renovations are scheduled to start next week."

"I need to see it, before everything changes." I blurted out, I cleared my throat and collected myself again. "Is there any way I can see the school before everything changes? I just want to go inside." Captain Roberts didn't say anything, but she stared at me in a calculating manner.

"How's Callie doing?" She asked finally.

"Better." I answered honestly, she waited for more. "They plan on waking her up on Friday, we'll know more then."

"Alright, I'm going down there in an hour to check some final reports, you can come with me." I needed to stay professional, but I couldn't stop the smile that broke across my face.

"Thank you Ma'am." I stood up and excused myself from her office, I practiced hiding my emotions, a great way to ensure I would never be cleared to go back to work was to break down inside of Anchor Beach.

The ride over there was silent and Anchor Beach looked like a ghost town, there were backpacks and lunch trays scattered about the outdoor seating. "I'm going to be in the south hall, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I assured her, she disappeared behind yards of tape into the deserted building. I entered the building the way I had seen my kids do hundreds of times, there were papers scattered everywhere and every once in a while there would be a backpack, cell phone, or textbook abandoned in the middle of the hallway.

I took a right towards Jude's classroom and my foot crunched on glass, blood was smeared across a wall. Initials were taped beside it with an evidence marker, I didn't recognize those initials and followed the path of destruction further into the building. I made it through the hall and into the high school wing before I reached my first puddle of blood. I took a deep breath and stared at the evidence marker, 'E.B. D.O.A' I looked around, overturned trash cans and open lockers. Emma had died right here, hopefully someone had held her hand. At the end of the hall the evidence markers disappeared slowly, most of the bullets were imbedded in the walls or lockers.

I turned back towards the junior high hallway, following the markers towards the cafeteria. With each step my heart began to beat a little faster, I tripped on someone's shoe and tried to ignore the drops of blood on the floor. I stared at the D.O.A. beside the blood smeared across the lockers and looked down at the ground, immediately recognizing Callie's backpack. I shoved my hands in my pockets to resist the urge to pick it up and take it home, I took five deep breaths before looking at the puddle of dry blood with her initials. There were imprints of shoes in it and I knew at least one of them was Jude's, I stared at the puddle expecting something to happen. I tore my eyes away and ended up staring at a dent in a locker a few feet away from where Callie had been. It was more than a dent, closer to a long grove, I took a step closer everything clicked. The bullet had hit this locker and then Callie, I pressed my back against those lockers and ended up sitting on the floor fighting tears.

That's where the Captain found me, I jumped up quickly and tried to look more collected than I actually was. "Off the record, are you alright? Nothing you say here is going to be used against you when you return to work." She said staring at the evidence marker with Callie's initials on it.

"I'm just, I have no idea where to start." I said honestly. "Can I see the security tape, you've edited it together right?"

"I don't think you want to watch that." Captain Roberts said softly.

"I do, I need to know." I said looking into her eyes, Captain Roberts nodded.

"I'll take you back to the station." I followed her out the door and tried to fight back the anger I had towards a child that was already dead. The car ride back to the station seemed to take forever, but when I finally got there I was second guessing my decision to watch this tape. "You don't have to watch this Stef." Captain Roberts said as we sat in front of a computer.

"I think I have to do this." I said softly as she pulled up the recording. "May I be alone Ma'am?" I asked as the video started. She looked hesitant to leave me alone, but stood up anyway.

"Come to my office before you leave." She closed the door as she left and I stopped the video, I stared at the shot of the entrance, kids were everywhere it was right after a lunch period and the beginning of another all you could see were heads moving in and out of rooms. I pressed play and the chaos continued, I watched as the door opened and Vico stepped inside, he stood out because he had his hood up. He was a dark towering figure compared to the smaller middle school aged students running around. He reached into both his pockets and pulled out two handguns, there was a short pause and everyone bustled around him before he raised his hands and fired randomly into the crowed.

There was no sound on the security tape, but everyone jumped at the noise the gun had made, a few kids started running, but most of them looked confused giving Vico just enough time to take aim and fire at the first casualty. The senior crumpled to the ground and all the kids began running. Vico began walking through the halls firing into the masses, hitting a backpack here and scratching a shoulder there. He disappeared from one camera and reappeared on another screen, the halls were emptying quickly, kids were dashing into classrooms and bathrooms or out exits, but Vico kept walking and shooting. Emma was shot square in the chest and she was obviously dead as soon as she fell to the floor, Vico stood at the end of the hall, near where Emma had fallen and watched as people ran from him.

A few students ran into Ms. Dunn's room a few feet from where Vico stood, he walked over to the door and fired into the glass without opening it. I knew that was how Bridget Dunn died. Vico dropped one of his handguns and looked around at the now empty halls, he started walking back the way he came and re-appeared on the original security camera. He fired into random classrooms as he walked and stopped beside his first casualty and on the other side of the lockers Jude was laying on top of what could only be Callie.

Vico stared at the dead boy then my children and sat on the floor, he pulled off his hood and looked at the gun in his hand. Even though I knew how this was going to end I was terrified for my children, I wanted them to move, to get out. Vico brought the gun to his head and without any hesitation pulled the trigger. Jude jumped up and slipped on the blood on the floor, he leaned in close and was obviously talking to Callie, he tried to get up again and fell. He finally found his footing and ran for the exit.

I rewound the footage and started from the beginning. I watched as Vico entered the building and watched as he fired into the students, I found Callie and Jude leaning against the lockers and talking near his classroom. After the first few shots rang out Callie gripped Jude's shoulders and started directing him into the classroom when she suddenly lurched forward and the two of them ended up on the ground.

They were lost in the sea of chaos and when the halls emptied Jude was laying over Callie in a protective way, when the halls were empty he jumped up. He seemed to be encouraging Callie to get up, she gets to her knees shakily, her right arm hanging awkwardly. She sways and falls back to the floor, Jude grabs her left hand and tries to drag her along, but it doesn't work. He looks up as if he hears something and jumps back on Callie.

Vico comes in and ends himself as quickly as he started his plan, Jude tries to rouse Callie again before running to the exit and tripping on another student. He picks that student up and carries the boy outside with him, I smiled, my boy was a hero.

**Thanks for reading you guys! And thank you for the stellar reviews, I don't know who invited the trolls to Fanfic these days, but just ignore them. I'm in my senior year of college and getting ready for graduate school so updates may not come oh-so frequently, but I'm always writing so updates will come. Just follow the story and I solemnly swear to do my best!**

**-Kodi**


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